Recent Judgments on Information Obligations and Liability Actions in Money-Lending Banking Establishments

In recent months, there have been quite a number of judgments relating to the information obligations of money-lending banking establishments, but above all with regard to the starting point of the limitation period applicable to liability actions in this area (see on the duty warning, Com. Jan. 25, 2023, No. 20-12.811 FS-B, Dalloz news, Feb. 2, 2023, obs. C. Hélaine; D. 2023. 172 ). The judgment delivered on June 21, 2023 by the Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation addresses a question not related to the limitation period, but to the nature of the damage resulting from the breach of the said obligation to inform in the particular context of a loan in fine secured by a pledge of life insurance.

The facts giving rise to the appeal began on August 29, 2000 with the conclusion of a loan agreement between a bank and a company, reimbursable in fine on November 12, 2013 and guaranteed by the pledge of two life insurance contracts taken out by two partners of the debtor company. But now that at the time of the repurchase of the contracts, the borrowing company notes a significant counter-performance of the life insurance contracts. The two partners therefore decide to make an early repayment of the litigious loan and assign the lender of funds to be liable with the debtor company. In a first appeal judgment, the trial judges consider that the action…