June 2023

Provisional Order of the President of the Athens Court of First Instance on the Suspension of the Executability of a Payment Order for Debts in excess of 650.000,00 euros

An interim order of the President of the Athens Court of First Instance has been published, suspending the enforceability of a payment order issued against a company for debts in excess of 650,000 euros. In that way, the management company, which had been pursuing enforcement, can no longer proceed with enforcement proceedings against the company. 

The fact that the group to which the applicant belongs, following a meeting with the servicer's employees and their encouragement, was to send the management company a proposal for the settlement of its debts, amounting to more than EUR 3 million, for which it had previously awaited the proposal of the out-of-court mechanism for the settlement of debts to the State, played a decisive role in the acceptance of the application for an interim order. Despite the fact that servicer had been informed of this, instead of waiting for the completion of the out-of-court procedure and the submission of the proposal, it proceeded to serve a payment order with a cheque for execution. A few days after that action, the proposal of the out-of-court mechanism was indeed issued and the applicant sent the servicer the proposal for the settlement of the debts, as she had undertaken to do. 

At the same time, the court presumed that the applicant's pleas in law, including the invalidity of the transfer of the claim from the bank to the fund, were well founded, on the basis of a relevant judgment of the Athens Court of First Instance, which had been delivered a few months earlier in an action brought by another company of the same group and which concerned the same opposing parties.