Correction of civil status entry after manifest error

ATA/210/1998Court of Justice / Administrative ChamberApr 21, 1998Granted

Extracted by Omnilex

Omnilex summary

The appellant challenged a civil status entry in which the civil registry had struck the deceased father’s name when recording the stepmother as adoptive mother. The court held that this was a manifest error and arbitrary. It therefore found that the Department of Justice and Police and Transport had to admit the request for modification of the registration.

Omnilex headnote

Art. 45 al. 2 CC; correction of civil status records; manifest error and arbitrariness. A civil status entry that does not correspond to the recorded legal situation must be corrected when the omission or alteration stems from a manifest administrative error. In such a case, the authority may not rely on a formalistic reading of the register where this would contradict good faith and lead to an arbitrary result; the correction request is to be admitted when the contested entry is objectively wrong.

Full text

Descripteurs

PROCEDURE; PRINCIPE DE LA BONNE FOI; MODIFICATION DE LA DEMANDE; CONCLUSIONS; DISPOSITIF; DELAI DE RECOURS; INTERDICTION DE L'ARBITRAIRE; PRESCRIPTION; OPPOSITION(PROCEDURE); RETARD; DELAI; INTERPRETATION(SENS GENERAL); ERREUR; ASSU

Normes

CC.45 al.2

Résumé

"La Direction de l'état civil a commis une erreur manifeste en biffant le nom du père de la recourante, décédé, lorsqu'il a inscrit le nom de la belle-mère comme mère adoptive. Son acte doit être considéré comme arbitraire. Le Département de justice et police et des transports devait admettre la requête en modification de l'inscription."

Keywords

civil statuscorrection of registerarbitrarinessgood faithmanifest erroradministrative modification

Extracted by Omnilex

Key legal questions extracted by Omnilex

Key legal question

Whether the civil status entry had to be corrected because the registry authority made a manifest error.

Extracted holding

Yes. The deletion of the deceased father’s name was a manifest error and the authority’s action was arbitrary; the correction request had to be allowed.

Extracted reasoning

The entry made by the civil registry was inconsistent with the situation to be recorded and could not be upheld under the principle of good faith and against arbitrariness.

Correction of civil status entry after manifest errorAI generated