Compensation in Cases of Unjust Enforcement (Article 940 § 3 of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure)

According to Article 940(3) of the C.P.P.D., which refers in total to the provisions of Articles 914 and 919 A.C., both in terms of...

According to Article 940(3) of the C.P.P.D., which refers in total to the provisions of Articles 914 and 919 A.C., both in terms of actual and legal consistency, if irrevocably enforced execution is cancelled, the person against whom the execution took place has the right to request compensation from the person who rushed it for his damage (positive, reserve and escape profit), and also financial satisfaction for non-asset damage, i.e. the moral damage suffered by the irrevocable execution. That is to say, in this case a genuine substantive legal claim for compensation to the victim, based on a special wrongdoing, the elements of which are defined in conjunction with Articles 914 or 919 CS (AP 475/2017, 792/2013, 1329/2014).

The main difference in § 3 of Article 940 C.P.D. from the preceding § 1 and (2) of the same Article is that it is not expressly provided for in that paragraph, by the irrevocable cancellation of enforcement, for the right of the defendant to perform the task of restoring things.

Within the meaning of Article 940(3) C.P.P.D., the unjust, as an element of the established wrongdoing, is identified in the accelerated enforcement and in any act thereof. This may not consist of grounds for nullity as substantial as the lack of right and formal, as a result of which enforcement was deemed irrevocably illegal. Furthermore, within the meaning of Article 914 A.C., the following conditions must be met in order to establish a claim for damages as well as for financial satisfaction due to moral harm: (a) an act or omission of the offender which is unlawful, i.e. to be contrary to a prohibition or imperative rule of law which confers the right or protection of a particular interest of the injured person; (b) the act or failure to be liable, i.e. due to deceit or negligence of the offender, even lightly, (c) damage to property or non-moral damage; and (d) a causal link between the act or omission of the offender and the damage to property or moral damage, which is determined in accordance with Articles 297 and 298 A.C.

The financial compensation referred to in Article 940(3) of the C.P.P.D. concerns the further damage suffered by the defendant as a result of the wrongful execution rather than the deprivation of his property and is sought by an independent voting suit, which is brought into the material court responsible under the general provisions and is tried in accordance with the regular procedure, without excluding the possibility of making an individual action for damages under the provisions of Articles 914 and 919 A.C. or an aid action under the provisions on undue enrichment in accordance with Article 904 A.C.

Restoration of moral harm can also be sought by legal persons, as members of an organized society, if by their unfairness, which is manifested by acts or omissions, their commercial faith, professional reputation and generally their commercial future were affected.

In case of cancellation of a payment order executed and subsequently cancelled, both the cancellation of the payment order and the cancellation of the execution should have become irrevocable and for the legal purpose of the compensation claim under Article 940 § 3, K.P.D., the irrevocable action should be invoked (AP 1457/2006 2044/2014).