International Law

CASSATION IN THE DUTCH CARIBBEAN

By Karel.Frielink

Cassation as a last resort

The civil court system in the Netherlands Antilles consists of three tiers; first instance cases are brought before the Court of First Instance of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (with seats in Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Aruba). Appeal cases are brought before the Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. When all normal appeal procedures have been exhausted, cassation cases can be brought before the Court of Cassation or Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) in The Hague in the Netherlands.

Cassation is a procedure – a last resort (at national level) - to review questions of law with the possibility of annulling previous decisions by the Courts. Cassation originally developed in France and the term cassation originates from the French word ?Casser?, meaning ?breaking?. The objective of cassation is to ensure and improve the uniformity, development and consistency of  law.

A cassation procedure differs essentially from an ordinary appeal in that a cassation procedure does not allow for any new investigation into the facts; only questions of law or civil procedures can be addressed, which rather limits the possibilities for starting a cassation procedure. The legal grounds for an appeal in cassation are (1) procedural defect and (2) infringement of the law. 

The cassation appeal should be filed by a lawyer who is registered in The Hague, in the Netherlands. However, according to the Cassation Regulations applicable in the Netherlands Antilles, all cases may be pleaded by lawyers registered with the Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.  

If the Supreme Court annuls a decision from the Netherlands Antilles, it will always be returned to the Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

Filing a cassation appeal suspends the decisions of previous courts, provided they were not declared enforceable notwithstanding cassation.

A cassation appeal against normal procedures must be filed within three months, counted form the day on which judgment is passed. In preliminary proceedings (kort geding) the term is nine weeks.

Martine Hofhuis
Lawyer – Spigthoff Curacao

(16 September 2010)

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Full post as published by Karel's Legal Blog on September 16, 2010 (boomark / email).