LIECHTENSTEIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Moritz Blasy, Nicolai Binkert, Simon Ott and Kathrin Binder, Schurti Partners Attorneys at Law Ltd
10.3 Procedure for Taking an Appeal An appeal against a judgment has to be filed within four weeks upon service of the judgment on the appealing party. An appeal against an order must be filed within 14 days (or four weeks in non-contentious proceedings) upon service of the order on the appealing party. The oppo- nent party may submit a statement of response within the same timeframes. The deadlines are not extendable. 10.4 Issues Considered by the Appeal Court at an Appeal A decision of the District Court can be appealed on procedural grounds, errors in the application of substantive law, errors of fact, a contradiction between a factual finding and the court files, or nullity. In appeal proceedings before the Court of Appeal, new facts and evidence can only be introduced in the statement of appeal and only if the court concludes that the new facts or evidence were not introduced in the first instance proceedings out of gross negligence. The respective standard applied by the Court of Appeal is very strict. In practice, new facts or evidence are almost never considered permissible by the Court of Appeal. In appellate proceedings before the Court of Appeal, evidence can be re-taken. In practice, this rarely happens. The Court of Appeal can either dismiss the appeal and con- firm the appealed decision, grant the appeal and either change the appealed decision on the mer- its, or remand it back to the District Court. The Supreme Court is bound by the facts estab- lished by the lower courts. Thus, a decision of the Court of Appeal can only be appealed on procedural grounds, on substantive law errors, or on a conflict between a factual finding and the court files or if the decision is null and void.
New facts or evidence may only be presented to prove that the challenged decision is subject to nullity or suffers from material procedural mis- takes. In general, the Supreme Court decides without an oral hearing. 10.5 Court-Imposed Conditions on Granting an Appeal As a rule, judgments are appealable. However, judgments of the Court of Appeal are not appeal- able if the amount in dispute does not exceed CHF5,000. Furthermore, judgments of the Court of Appeal cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court if the amount in dispute does not exceed CHF50,000 and if the Court of Appeal confirms the decision of the District Court. Most orders of a procedural nature cannot be appealed. Also, orders of the Court of Appeal confirming orders of the District Court or refer- ring the matter back to the District Court cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court as a matter of statutory law, but the Court of Appeal can permit an appeal to the Supreme Court in exceptional circumstances. 10.6 Powers of the Appellate Court After an Appeal Hearing The appellate court can either dismiss the appeal and confirm the appealed decision or grant the appeal and either change the appealed deci- sion on the merits or refer it back to the lower instances to re-hear the case. 11. Costs 11.1 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of Litigation At first, each party is responsible for its own attorney’s fees and expenses and, as a rule, court fees are to be borne by the applicant. The
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