THE COURT

Concerning the only ground in its second limb:

Considering Article 623 of the Commercial Code,

Given that the judgement of dismissal under attack declared the Commercial Court incompetent and the Civil Court (“Tribunal de Grande Instance”) competent to hear a claim for reimbursement of sums paid into savings account and for damages brought by Khafi against the Caisse Régionale de Crédit Agricole Mutuel de la Gironde (“C.R.C.A.M.”) on the grounds that (i) even if the opening and management of a savings account may be carried out in the course of banking activities, such a transaction cannot be considered to be a commercial act (“acte de commerce”) within the meaning of Article 632 of the Commercial Code and is entirely of a civil nature when it is carried out, as in the present case, by a not-for-profit organisation, which is not a trader (“commerçant”); and (ii) since it did not involve the making of profit by speculation on money and credit, such a transaction did not fall into the business of banking;

Given that the Court of Appeal has not given a legal basis to its decision since it came to this conclusion without enquiring whether, pursuant to the provisions of Article 645 of the Rural Code, which empowers the Caisses de Crédit Agricole Mutuel to receive by way of deposit from any person deposits of funds and securities, and to those of Article 1 of the Law of 13 June 1941 relating to the banking profession, the opening and management of the savings account of Khafi by C.R.C.A.M. was not a banking transaction within the meaning of Article 632 of the Commercial Code;

FOR THESE REASONS….
QUASHES AND ANNULS…..

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