Abstract

In the commented resolution, the Supreme Court analysed the issue of the deadline by which the creditor is able to bring an effective action directly against the fourth person under Art. 531 § 2 of the Civil Code. Resolving the legal problem submitted by the Appellate Court, the Supreme Court assumed that after the court has deemed a debtor’s legal transaction with a third party ineffective as injurious to the creditor, the time limit for claiming the transaction dispositive of the benefit between the third and the fourth person be deemed ineffective runs as of the transaction date. Such a finding is supporting by both the literal as well as systemic and functional interpretation of the Civil Code provisions. Any different setting of such deadline would provide the debtor and the collaborating entities with an opportunity to continue harming the creditor by successively disposing of the benefit originally gained by the third party.

The commented resolution is at the same time of a universal nature, and may be applied in case the legal transaction of the debtor with a third party has not been challenged previously. Also in such a situation the time limit for bringing an action shall start running as of the date of further disposal of the benefit.