GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Dimitris Babiniotis, Danae Papadatou and Emmanouil Mavrantonakis, Zepos & Yannopoulos
Participation of Litigant Parties • Adversary proceeding judgments – all litigant par - ties participate in the proceedings by appearing before court on the day of the hearing, if required, and submitting written pleadings and exhibits. • Default judgments – these are issued when at least one of the parties does not participate in the pro - ceedings and is not deemed legally represented by another party. The legal consequences of default vary, depending on who is the party in default (ie, claimant or respondent) and whether the party in default was legally summoned. As a general rule, in the case of default by claimant, the case is dismissed, unless the respondent has a legitimate interest that the case be tried or has filed a coun - terclaim. If the respondent is in default and the lawsuit is admissible and legally valid, a presump - tion is made that respondent confesses to the facts presented in the lawsuit. The lawsuit is, thus, granted. If served with the default judgment, and if there was a serious ground for the default (eg, a force majeure event), the party in default may file to set aside the default judgment. Without service to the respondent, the default judgment remains unenforceable. Relief Sought and Granted • Declaratory judgments – these judgments establish the existence or non-existence of a legal rela - tionship or right. Declaratory judgments are not enforceable and yet, if they declare the validity of a monetary claim, they can ground payment orders. • Constitutive judgments – these judgments estab - lish, amend or nullify legal relationships that did not exist prior to the handing down of the judg - ment, becoming effective once rendered definitive. Constitutive judgments are not enforceable. Rather, they are binding not just on the parties but on any third party, upon becoming “definitive” (more on this notion in “Enforceable Titles” at the end of this subsection). • Performance judgments – these judgments order the respondent to perform or refrain from specific actions (eg, awarding damages). They are enforce - able, provided legal conditions are met.
Binding Effect • Final judgments – these judgments uphold or reject (in whole or in part) claims, adjudicating a dispute in a binding way. Only final judgments that are not or no longer subject to an appeal or to an applica - tion to set aside owing to default are vested with enforceability and res judicata effect. Under certain conditions, first-instance judgments may be pro - visionally enforceable, even if they produce no res judicata effect. Final judgments that produce res judicata effect and enforceability may still be chal - lenged either: (a) through an appeal on cassation before the Supreme Court for legal errors; or (b) through an application for reconsideration due to grave irregularities (eg, procedural fraud, or corruption of judge). • Non-final judgments – these judgments are of preparatory nature and usually regulate procedural matters (eg, postponing the progress of pending proceedings, or ordering performance of certain procedural acts or the furnishing of documents). They are not enforceable. Revocability • Final judgments are irrevocable. They may be sub - ject to an appeal before a higher court, an appeal on cassation before the Supreme Court, an appli - cation for reconsideration before the court that has issued them, and – if issued in default – to an application to set aside a default judgment. • Non-final judgements are revocable. They are not subject to any means of appeal. Means of appeal filed against a final judgment are considered to have been filed against any non-final judgments issued before the final one. Subject Matter Judgments are also discerned according to whether the court tried the case on its merits or whether it only dealt with a procedural matter, usually rejecting the action as inadmissible. Injunctive Relief • Injunctive measures – in the case of imminent risk, injunctive relief is ordered to prevent or mitigate immediate harm until an ordinary hearing on the lawsuit can be held or possibly even until a first-
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