The total closure of trade and force majeure

CA Paris, Pole 1-Chbre 3, 9 Dec. 2020, n°20/05041

The Paris Court of Appeal, ruling on interim measures, in a judgment delivered on December 9, 2020, considered that the payment of current rents due from March 11, 2020 was seriously disputed.

As part of this procedure, the lessee, operating a ready-to-wear business, notably asked the Court of Appeal to accept, in the alternative , "force majeure and to say [that it] does not was not required to pay rent for the period between March 17, 2020 and May 11, 2020 due to the confinement period.

The Court was also asked to "retain force majeure and reduce the rent payable to 30% since the yellow vests crisis and the transport strikes, i.e. from October 2018 to February 2020, cancel the rent from March to May 11, 2020, and reduce the rent to 30% until the end of the pandemic. »

It is therefore in this context that the Court, after recalling that the effects of force majeure are the suspension of the obligation (and not the reduction of the said obligation or the termination of the contract), considered that " the total closure business [of the lessee] in the context of the state of health emergency and confinement is likely to take on the nature of force majeure, so that there is a serious dispute as to the payment of only current rents from from March 11, 2020.

It being specified that, under the terms of this judgment, the Court clearly ruled out force majeure " with regard to the demonstrations of "yellow vests" which only took place one day a week and the transport strike which did not impede any freedom to come and go. »

Without affirming that the total closure of the businesses within the framework of the confinement constitutes a case of force majeure, the Court of Appeal concludes that there is a serious dispute as to the payment of only the current rents from March 11, 2020 that It will be up to the trial judges to decide.

We still have to wait for a decision on the merits to be rendered...