Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 309

Summary: - A dispute over the amount of the action fees to be collected. How it is brought. By a grievance against the assessment order before the process server or by a declaration at the court registry. Where the dispute concerns the basis, extent, and discharge of the obligation to pay the fee, the dispute in this regard is brought by following the ordinary procedures for instituting an action in accordance with the general rules. - The respondent instituted an action seeking annulment of the fee assessment order challenged by the grievance, on the ground that the action in respect of which these fees were due was an administrative action seeking annulment of an administrative decision, for which only a fixed fee was payable, which he had paid, and that his request to append the settlement agreement to the hearing minutes and give it the force of an enforceable instrument did not constitute an amendment of the claims or the addition of a new ground therein, so that no new fees were payable on it. A dispute concerning the basis of the obligation to pay the fee, not its amount. Consequence thereof. The action concerning it must be instituted by a statement of claim in accordance with ordinary procedures. His compliance with this and the judgment ruling the action admissible. No defect. Rule: The provision in Article 23 of Law No. 17 of 1973 concerning Judicial Fees that “The provisions of Article 209 of Law No. 6 of 1960 concerning Civil and Commercial Procedure shall apply to fee assessment orders and objections thereto,” and in Article 123 of the current Civil and Commercial Procedure Law, corresponding to the aforementioned Article 209, that “The costs of the action shall be assessed by an order upon a petition submitted by the successful party to the presiding judge of the panel that rendered the judgment, and this order shall be served on the unsuccessful party ... Each of the litigants may lodge a grievance against the assessment of the costs covered by this order. The grievance shall be lodged either before the process server upon service of the order, or by a declaration at the registry of the court that rendered the judgment within the eight days following service of the order,” indicate—as established in the jurisprudence of this Court—that if the dispute concerns the amount of the fee to be collected, it must be brought by a grievance against the assessment order, either before the process server or by a declaration at the court registry. If, however, it concerns the basis, extent, and discharge of the obligation to pay the fee, it must be brought by following the ordinary procedures for instituting an action, which are subject to the general rules. That being so, and since the respondent instituted his action seeking annulment of the fee assessment order challenged by the grievance on the ground that the action in respect of which these fees were due was an administrative action he had instituted seeking annulment of an administrative decision, for which only a fixed fee was payable, which he had paid, and that his request to append the settlement agreement to the hearing minutes and give it the force of an enforceable instrument did not constitute an amendment of the claims or the addition of a new claim therein, so that no new fees were payable on it, the dispute, as such, concerns the basis of the obligation to pay the fee covered by the assessment order challenged by the grievance and is not a dispute over the amount of that fee. Accordingly, the action must be instituted by a statement of claim filed with the registry of the competent court in accordance with ordinary procedures. Since the respondent complied with this, he followed the course prescribed by law for instituting the action, and the challenged judgment's ruling that it was admissible accorded with the correct application of the law. The challenge to it in this regard is therefore without foundation.