Article 149: Litigation costs and court fees defined

Décisions de la Cour suprême interprétant cette section

1. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 5063/2565 (2022)

   The costs of conducting a case are a category of litigation costs that the court must rule on whether or not a party requests it, under Section 167 read with Section 149 paragraph one.

   The court held that the costs of conducting a case are a type of litigation cost defined in Section 149 paragraph one, and that under Section 167 the court must order them, in the amount it sees fit under the fee schedule, whether or not a party asks. Ordering the applicant to pay these costs was therefore lawful.

2. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 1046/2562 (2019)

   The party who applied for execution is liable for the fee on property seized but not sold or disposed of, at 3.5 percent of the value of the property seized, under section 149 paragraph one with section 153 paragraph two, section 153/1 and Table 5 item 3 annexed to the former Code. Those provisions do not require the person levying to stand as judgment creditor or judgment debtor to the other side. But the fee is capped: it may not exceed the share of the seized property that the applicant is himself entitled to receive. An award of 3.5 percent of the whole seized value, with no such cap, is wrong.

   The judgment had directed the plaintiff and the five defendants to divide the estate between them first. Instead the plaintiff went straight to execution, having the execution officer seize the estate land for auction so the proceeds could be divided, which was out of the order the judgment laid down. The seizure was set aside, and that was the plaintiff's own doing, so as the party who applied for execution the plaintiff had to pay the fee for property seized but not sold. On the amount, the Supreme Court varied the Court of Appeal: the fee is 3.5 percent of the value of the property seized but must not exceed the share of that property the plaintiff is himself entitled to receive. Charging 3.5 percent of the entire seized value without that cap was unfair, because the rationale of the schedule assumes a levy on a judgment debtor's property.

3. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 3330/2566 (2023)

   The court fee that is the filing fee under Section 149 concerns civil proceedings, and does not apply to a civil claim joined to a criminal case, where court fees may not be charged beyond those allowed in the criminal procedure rules.

   The plaintiff argued the defendants had not paid the appeal filing fee for the civil part under Section 149, so their civil appeal should not have been accepted. The court held this was a criminal case in which, under the criminal procedure rules, court fees may not be charged beyond those allowed, so the Section 149 filing fee did not apply to the civil part.

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.