Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 282

Summary: - An appeal against a judgment rendered on a grievance against a fee-assessment order is barred only where the subject matter of the application or action is not susceptible to this avenue of challenge. In this regard, the amount stated in the order is not taken as constituting the monetary threshold for appeal. The reason. The fee collected by the Registry arises on the occasion of recourse to the courts in an application or dispute submitted to them; it is generated by, arises from and is occasioned by it. It stands in relation to it as a branch to its root. - The criterion for the permissibility of an appeal against a judgment on the merits of an action under Article 140 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The value of the claim for which the action was brought. - The appellant’s bringing an action to compel the respondent to pay an amount exceeding the Court of First Instance’s final-instance monetary threshold. The challenged judgment’s ruling that an appeal against the judgment rendered on the grievance against the fee-assessment order for the aforementioned action was impermissible because the monetary threshold was not met, on the ground that the amount of the fee order determines the monetary threshold for appeal. An error in applying the law requiring its cassation. Rule: It is established in this Court’s jurisprudence that an appeal against a judgment rendered on a grievance against a fee-assessment order is barred only where the subject matter of the application or action is not susceptible to this avenue of challenge. No regard is had in this respect to the amount stated in the fee-assessment order as constituting the monetary threshold for appeal. This is because the fee collected by the Registry arises on the occasion of recourse to the courts in an application or dispute submitted to them. It is generated by that application or dispute, arises from it and is occasioned by it, and consequently stands in relation to it as a branch to its root. The criterion for the permissibility of an appeal against a judgment on the merits of an action under Article 140 of the Code of Civil Procedure is the value of the claim for which the action was brought. Accordingly, action No. 2144 of 2009, Commercial, Court of First Instance, for which the fees challenged by the grievance were assessed, was brought seeking to compel the respondent company to pay 20000 dinars, which exceeds the Court of First Instance’s final-instance monetary threshold. The judgment rendered on the grievance against the fee-assessment order is therefore appealable. Since the challenged judgment departed from this view, relied on the amount of the fee-assessment order in determining the monetary threshold for appeal, and consequently ruled that the appeal was impermissible because the monetary threshold was not met, it erred in applying the law, rendering it defective and requiring its cassation.