MOLDOVA Law and Practice Contributed by: Vladislav Roșca, Ina Jimbei and Mădălina Luca, EFRIM, ROŞCA & Associates
10.2 Rules Concerning Appeals of Judgments Appeal The appeal may be filed if one of the following grounds exists. • Insufficient findings of fact – important circum- stances for resolving the case have not been fully determined and elucidated by the first-instance court. • Insufficient evidence – circumstances considered established by the first-instance court were not supported by reliable and sufficient evidence. • Contradictory conclusions – the conclusions set out in the judgment are inconsistent with the facts of the case. • Errors in law: (a) substantive law errors – eg, incorrect interpre- tation, application of the law; or (b) procedural law errors – eg, failure to notify parties. Procedural law errors can be identified and invoked by the Court of Appeal ex officio. The appeal must meet the conditions set out in Arti- cles 364–365 of the CPC. For example, a stamp duty of MDL200 (EUR10) and a state fee amounting to 85% of the fee paid at first instance must be paid. Appeals are not subject to a preliminary admissibility screening as in the case of recourses; however, within ten days from the allocation of the appeal, the panel verifies whether it meets the procedural legal require- ments (eg, state taxes, filing time limit, persons enti- tled to appeal). If deficiencies are identified, the court issues a ruling either setting a time limit for their rem- edy (remediable deficiencies) or returning the appeal without examination (deficiencies not remedied in time or impossible to remedy). Recourse Following the 2023 reform, the SCJ now acts primarily as a cassation court to ensure the uniform application of the law. Recourse is admitted only if one of the fol- lowing grounds exists: • the interpretation of the law in the contested judge- ment (decision) is contrary to the uniform jurispru- dence of the SCJ;
• admitting the recourse changes or consolidates SCJ jurisprudence; • a late appeal was wrongly accepted or a timely appeal was wrongly rejected as being late; • the judgment or decision affects the rights of per- sons not involved in the proceedings; • the judgment or decision is arbitrary or based on manifestly unreasonable evaluation of evidence; or • the court was not properly composed or the judg- ment (decision) was rendered in violation of juris- dictional competence. Recourses must comply with the conditions set out in Article 437 of the CPC. For example, a stamp duty of MDL200 (EUR10) and a state fee amounting to 70% of the fee paid at first instance must be paid. Recourses are first examined at the admissibility stage by a panel of three judges. Only those recourses that meet one of the above legal grounds and are not inad- missible for other reasons (Article 433 of the CPC) are granted examination on the merits. Recourses are examined on the merits by a panel of three, five or nine judges. The 2023 reform significantly narrowed access to cas- sation, resulting in a large number of inadmissibility rulings. The reform raised the standards for reason- ing a recourse, requiring the party filing the recourse to refer to a specific legal ground and substantiate it in light of the factual and legal circumstances of the case, clearly identifying the errors committed by the Court of Appeal. Persons Entitled to Appeal Appeal According to Article 360 of the CPC, an appeal may be filed by: • the parties (including co-parties), either personally or through a representative; • other participants in the case, exhaustively listed in Article 55 of the CPC, either personally or through a representative; and • a witness, expert, specialist or interpreter, but only regarding the reimbursement of court-related expenses owed to them.
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