Securing the appointment of the CSE as supervisor in judicial liquidation proceedings, against the opposition of the liquidator and the director

Issue

A company belonging to a French group specialising in the international production and marketing of equipment for electricity networks and water and gas distribution has been placed in compulsory liquidation. The elected representatives of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) engaged the firm to represent them in these proceedings and, in particular, to secure the appointment of the CSE as supervisor in the liquidation. This request was met with joint opposition from the liquidator and the director of the company in liquidation.

Challenges

The role of supervisor confers the right to monitor the progress of the liquidation and provides direct access to information relating to the liquidator’s operations. Securing this appointment therefore meant giving staff representatives the means to monitor the proceedings from within, rather than being entirely at the mercy of the process. The simultaneous opposition from both the liquidator and the company director, two key figures at the heart of the proceedings, compounded the difficulty: convincing the court required demonstrating the legitimacy of the CSE’s appointment to this role despite this dual resistance.

Solution

Faced with this two-pronged opposition, the firm brought the application for appointment before the Paris Commercial Court, arguing that the elected representatives were entitled to hold the position of supervisor despite the reservations of the judicial liquidator and the company director. The court granted this application: the staff representatives were appointed as supervisors and, with this role, gained direct oversight of the liquidation process, whereas their position might otherwise have been limited to that of mere observers of the proceedings.