Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 62

Summary: - The prohibition on challenging by cassation judgments issued by the Court of Appeal concerning disputes relating to the lease of real estate and compensation arising therefrom that fall within the jurisdiction of the Rental Circuit of the Court of First Instance. The criterion for determining whether a judgment was issued in a rental dispute is whether it falls within the scope of application of Decree-Law 35 of 1978 or not. - The prerequisite for the impermissibility of challenging judgments issued in rental disputes by cassation. The circuit must have decided a rental dispute whose determination requires application of a provision of Decree-Law 35 of 1978. A judgment founded on a legal rule contained in another law, such as the Code of Procedure, the Law of Evidence, or the Civil Code. Its effect. As regards the permissibility of challenging it by cassation, it is subject to the general rules contained in the Code of Procedure. - The challenged judgment’s ruling that one lease was void and another valid, and its reliance upon the eviction of the tenant for refusing to pay rent on the basis that the lease upon which the company intervening in the case relied had expired upon the expiry of its term, since it had to be registered pursuant to Article 11 of Decree 5 of 1959 concerning Real Estate Registration. Its import. The judgment founded its ruling in the case on a legal rule contained in a law other than Decree-Law 35 of 1978. Its effect. It may be challenged by cassation because it is subject to the general rules in the Code of Procedure. Rule: It is established in the jurisprudence of this Court that the final paragraph of Article 26 of Decree-Law 35 of 1978 concerning the Lease of Real Estate prohibited challenges by cassation against judgments issued by the Court of Appeal concerning disputes relating to the lease of real estate and compensation arising therefrom that fall within the jurisdiction of the Rental Circuit of the Court of First Instance. The criterion for determining whether a judgment was issued in a rental dispute is whether the dispute falls within the scope of application of Decree-Law 35 of 1978 or not. The prerequisite for the impermissibility of challenging these judgments is that the circuit has decided a rental dispute whose determination requires application of a provision of the aforementioned Decree-Law. If these conditions are not satisfied, in that the judgment issued by the Court of Appeal is founded on a legal rule contained in another law, such as the Code of Procedure, the Law of Evidence, or the Civil Code, the judgment is subject, as regards the permissibility of challenging it by cassation, to the general rules contained in the Code of Procedure. That being so, the challenged judgment founded its ruling that the lease dated 1/2/2013 was void and that the lease dated 27/2/2013 was valid—and relied upon this latter lease in ordering the eviction of the tenant for refusing to pay rent to the lessor company under it—on the basis that the lease dated 15/4/2002, upon which ........ and Sons Company—the intervener in the case—relied, had expired on 14/4/2012 upon the expiry of its term, since it had to be registered pursuant to Article 11 of Decree 5 of 1959 concerning Real Estate Registration. Accordingly, the challenged judgment founded its ruling in the case on a legal rule contained in a law other than Decree-Law 35 of 1978. Consequently, a challenge against it by cassation is subject to the general rules in the Code of Procedure.