Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 3

Summary: - The evidentiary authority of copies of private instruments is commensurate with the extent to which they point to the original. The parties’ discussion of the substance of documents whose copies are submitted in the proceedings. Constitutes an implicit admission that they conform to the original, permitting their acceptance and reliance upon them. Its effect. A party may not deny the original from which they were taken or disavow them. Rule: It is established that, although the general rule is that copies of private instruments have no authority or evidentiary value except insofar as they point to the original, the parties’ discussion of the substance of documents whose copies are submitted in the proceedings constitutes an implicit admission that those copies conform to the original, permitting their acceptance and reliance upon them. A party may not thereafter return to disavow them or deny the original from which they were taken. That being so, and whereas the judgment under appeal based its ruling determining the amounts due to the appellant as profits on her share in the first respondent company on what it derived from the report of the committee of experts filed before the Court of Appeal, relying on copies of the balance sheets, minutes of general meetings, and calculation of net profit during the period from 2001 to 2008, and the amounts approved for distribution as profits, after deducting the mandatory reserve percentage and the appellant’s share in the capital increase of the first respondent company, and consequently ordered the latter to pay that amount to the appellant. This is a sound inference by the judgment, having its proper basis in the documents, sufficient to support its ruling and containing an implicit response refuting anything to the contrary. It is not undermined by what the appellant raised concerning her disavowal of the copies of the balance sheets and general meeting resolutions, since it is established in the documents that the appellant discussed the substance of those documents and sought a judgment in accordance with the copies of the balance sheets and general meeting resolutions, provided that no percentage of the profits due to her be deducted for the mandatory reserve or the capital increase. Accordingly, she may not thereafter return to disavow the photocopies, and the judgment is not at fault for disregarding her defence in this respect. The challenge on these two grounds is therefore without foundation.