ABSTRACT
The case concerned a dispute over the succession to the estates of Mary-Ann Higgins, who died on 22 February 1961, and her husband Charles Brown-Petersen, who died on 13 March 1962. The 23 applicants were entitled to a share in the estates of the deceased either by will or on intestacy and were all French citizens. The applicants were parties to three sets of proceedings. Those proceedings were an action for payment of a legacy, a third party application to reopen proceedings and an application to have set aside as fraudulent a transfer of a property development to the Brown Building Corporation (‘BBC’). In the last set of proceedings the Papeete (French Polynesia) Civil Court of First Instance found in favour of the applicants. The BBC appealed and while that appeal was pending, the applicants applied for transfer of the case to another court on grounds of bias. On 22 March 1990, the Court of Cassation ordered the transfer of the two other related proceedings to the Paris Court of Appeal on the grounds of doubt as to impartiality of the Papeete Court of Appeal. The Court of Cassation did not mention the proceedings against BBC in its judgment and the applicants, believing that to be a mistake, made an application for rectification of a clerical error to the court. That application was dismissed on 23 October 1991. In the meantime, the Papeete Court of Appeal ruled on 7 December 1989 that there were no grounds for deferring judgment and dismissed the application for an order setting aside the transfer to BBC. The applicants complained that the Papeete Court of Appeal had not been impartial in the proceedings against BBC and that the proceedings before the Court of Cassation had been unfair, as that court had perpetuated the violation committed by the Papeete Court of Appeal by not setting aside the judgment of 7 December 1989. Comm found unanimously V 6(1).
