MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Adrián Magallanes, Diego Sierra and Rodrigo Barradas Muñiz, Von Wobeser y Sierra, SC
3. Initiating a Lawsuit 3.1 Rules on Pre-action Conduct
3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant For commercial and civil disputes, if there is no forum selection clause agreed upon between the parties, the judge with jurisdiction to hear the case will be the judge of: • the place that the defendant selected to be judicially required to pay; • the place designated in the contract for the If there are multiple defendants, the judge of the domicile of one of the defendants can exercise jurisdiction over all of them (Article 1104 of the Commerce Code and Article 156 of the Code of Civil Procedure for the Federal District). In civil matters, this may vary depending on the state legislation and on the type of action. 3.4 Initial Complaint According to the Commerce Code, an initial complaint must contain the following informa- tion: • the court before which the lawsuit is submit- ted; • the name, domicile and tax identification number of the plaintiff; • the name and domicile of the defendant; • a list of claims; • the facts on which the action is based, indicating the documents and witnesses that support each fact; • the legal basis and type of action; • the value of the claim; • all documentary evidence and evidence that the plaintiff is planning to produce; and • a signature (Article 1390 Bis 11 of the Com- merce Code). fulfilment of the obligation; or • the domicile of the defendant.
In general, Mexican law does not impose any rules on pre-action conduct, although there are some exceptions – for example, if the con- tractual right is not yet enforceable because the agreement did not establish a deadline for payment, in which case the party has to require payment judicially or before a notary public or two witnesses and wait 30 days before filing a lawsuit. However, this has more to do with the substantive right than with the procedural steps that must be taken before initiating a trial. There are certain pre-trial motions ( medios pre- paratorios ) that the parties can file before they submit a claim, usually to prepare evidence or obtain relevant information for their case under very specific circumstances. For example, they may seek the examination of witnesses who are elderly or in imminent danger of dying, or the In commercial disputes, the general statute of limitations is ten years (Article 1047 of the Com- merce Code). The relevant exceptions include actions derived from a company’s by-laws or against the liquidators, which have a statute of limitations of five years (Article 1045 of the Com- merce Code). However, other exceptions apply. Other types of claims have specific statutes of limitations – for example, the statute of limita- tions for collective actions is three and a half years, starting from the day on which the dam- age was caused. The general rule for claims based on tort is two years. judicial inspection of assets. 3.2 Statutes of Limitations
963 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook