Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation (General Assembly), Request No. 1 of 2026 (Civil), decision of 28 January 2026
Articles 179 and 181 of the Civil Procedure Law require the appellant in cassation to pay the court fee in full and lodge the security deposit within three working days of notice of the fee assessment. A late payment does not make the appeal inadmissible if it is made within the time limit for appealing. Payment within the three working days is also valid even if the appeal period has by then expired, provided the statement of appeal was filed in time. Only payment after both the three days and the appeal period have expired makes the appeal inadmissible.
The First Commercial Chamber referred two conflicting lines of authority on appeals in cassation where the appellant paid the security deposit more than three working days after being notified of the fee assessment. One line declared such appeals inadmissible even if payment was made before the time limit for appealing had expired; the other admitted them as long as payment was made within that time limit.
The General Assembly noted that Articles 179 and 181 of the Civil Procedure Law surround the cassation appeal with procedural conditions: the appeal is not validly registered until the fee is paid in full and the deposit lodged, and the law expressly requires both within three working days of the fee notice; non-compliance makes the appeal inadmissible and is a matter of procedural public order. It distinguished four situations: payment within the three days and within the appeal period; payment after the three days but within the appeal period; payment within the three days but after the appeal period; and payment after both. Where payment is made within the appeal period, the appeal is lodged as Article 179(1) requires, whether or not the three days were met. The same applies to payment within the three days even if the appeal period has expired, because the law sets the three-day period without tying it to the appeal period. Only in the fourth situation is the appeal not lodged as required. Procedural rules must be interpreted according to their purpose, and inadmissibility should follow only where the breach goes to the essence of the rule and defeats the procedural discipline it serves.
The General Assembly adopted the principle that an appeal is duly lodged when fee and deposit are paid within the cassation time limit, regardless of the three working days, and also when they are paid within the three working days after the notice even if the appeal period has expired, provided the statement of appeal was filed within time.
Losing a cassation appeal on a payment technicality can end a commercial dispute. The decision gives appellants and their counsel a clear and more forgiving rule: what matters is that the statement of appeal is filed in time and that the fee and deposit are paid either within the appeal period or within three working days of the fee notice.
| Articles 179 and 181 of Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022 (Civil Procedure Law) — text of articles 179, 181 |
| Article 9 of Abu Dhabi Law No. 6 of 2024 on the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department |
“الحالة الوحيدة، من بين الحالات المذكورة، التي يعتبر فيها الطعن مقدماً على خلاف ما هو مقرر بالبند”Short quotation from the judgment as published by the court. The full judgment is on the court’s official service.
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