DECISION NO. 0883 ISSUED BY THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHAMBER OF THE SUPREME TRIBUNAL OF JUSTICE

Decision No. 0883 of December 13, 2018, issued by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, was published in Official Gazette No. 41.571 of January 24, 2019. Said decision declared the partial annulment on grounds of unconstitutionality of the part in fine of article 318 of the Code of Civil Procedure, since said article is contrary to the principles of celerity and procedural economy contained in articles 26 and 257 of the National Constitution.

The aforesaid article 318 is now drafted as follows: “After the elapsing of the forty days established in the foregoing article and the time allowed for distance travelled, if such were the case, if the brief of formalization established in the foregoing article has been filed, the opposing party may, within the twenty following days, file in writing the arguments that, in his judgment, contradict the allegations of the formalizing party, mentioning in his brief the rules that, in his judgment, are to be applied in order to settle the controversy, and explaining the reasons that prove said application.

Regardless of whether or not the formalization has been answered, the Civil Cassation Chamber may, on its own initiative or upon a request from a party – should the Chamber so decide – set, within a period of 10 juridical days following the end of the period of time for objections, a time and a day for holding the oral hearing of cassation, after notifying the parties. At said hearing, the parties, in the presence of the judges of the Civil Cassation Chamber, will orally and publicly state in the period of time set to that end their allegations and defenses, the formalizing party will start and will be followed by the objecting party and replication and rejoinder will be allowed to them, being limited to their arguments of formalization or objection, without being allowed to bring new facts to the debate. Said hearing willbe recorded and the Secretary of the Chamber will draw up minutes of the same, in which the procedural steps of the process will be terminated and the stage at which a decision is to be issued will be allowed to begin .The parties’ failure to attend said hearing will not bring adverse juridical consequences to the parties; should no party attend the act, it will be declared void, without the possibility of being set again. In the cases in which, after the end of the period of time for objecting to the appeal for cassation, the Chamber does not set the hearing of cassation, it will be understood that the course of the procedure will continue and the stage at which a decision is to be issued will begin.”

Then, the phases of replication and rejoinder are removed from the cassation procedure after the publication of the decision and the implementation of the oral hearing of cassation is ordered (upon the request from a party or upon the Civil Cassation Chamber’s own initiative).

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