EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohamed Osama, Hana Elbarbary and Hamza Shehata, Shehata & Partners
• In claims of compensation for contractual liability (Article 218 of the Civil Code). The penalty for not notifying the defendant is inadmissibility, except that the legislature has made exceptions to this (Article 220 of the Civil Code). These exceptions are the situ- ation where the debtor declares in writing that it will not fulfil its obligation or the situa- tion where the performance of the obligation becomes useless or not possible by the acts of the debtor. • If the creditor’s right is fixed by writing, with a determined value and due to be performed (ie, a commercial paper such as a promissory note), the creditor shall notify the debtor that the latter has a maximum of five days to fulfil its obligation, and then proceed to request a writ of performance (Articles 201 and 202 of the Procedural Code). The penalty for failure to follow this requirement is the inadmissibility of the case. In some other cases, the legislature has also required that the initiation of proceedings require certain procedures to be followed first. For example, the need for the worker or employee to resort to their labour office first to settle the dispute amicably (Article 70 Labour Law) before filing a case against their employer. The penalty for not abiding with this requirement is the inad- missibility of the case. 3.2 Statutes of Limitations Firstly, all articles referring to statutory limitations in different legislation apply only if raised by the defendant who has an interest. In other words, the court does not rule sua sponte concerning issues of statutes of limitations. It should also be noted that the origin is the expi- ration of the statute of limitation on the right and/
or the obligation in question is 15 years (Article 374 of the Civil Code) unless stated specifically. The following are some examples of the dura- tions of the statutes of limitations under Egyptian Law. • A warranty claim’s statute of limitation shall be one year from the time of the seller’s delivery. This applies even if the buyer has not disclosed the defect until later on, unless the seller accepts the obligation for a warranty for a longer period. However, the seller may not use the lapse of the one-year statute if it is proven that it has deliberately concealed the defect (Article 452 of the Civil Code). • Generally, any claims arising out of employ- ment contracts have a statute of limitation of one year following the termination of the contract (Article 698 of the Civil Code). • The statute of limitation arising out of ship- ping contracts, whether on land or planes, shall be two years if the subject of the dis- pute is the carrier’s insurance claim for the death of the passenger or physical damage; if the subject of the dispute were a claim for compensation for the destruction or damage of luggage or goods, the statute of limitation shall be one year (Articles 272 and 296 of the Trade Code). • The claim for compensation arising out of tort liability shall have a statute of limitation of three years from the day on which the injured person was aware of the damage and the person responsible for it (Article 172 of the Civil Code). • Claims arising out of an insurance contract shall be subject to a statute of limitation of three years from the time of the occurrence of the event resulting from such claims (Article 6 of Unified Insurance Code).
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