## Facts

- A garage operator engaged a certified accountant to handle bookkeeping and tax work.
- After the relationship ended, the accountant claimed unpaid professional fees, which the client refused to pay.
- The accountant retained the client’s accounting documents as security for the unpaid fees and obtained an irrevocable judicial decision authorizing the retention.
- Tax authorities later audited the client and imposed reassessments and penalties.
- The client asked the accountant to return the records or to provide the tax administration with the documents or the information contained in them.
- The accountant refused, relying on the right of retention based on the unpaid fees.
- The client sued for damages, alleging the refusal caused the reassessments and penalties.

## Issues

1. Whether a creditor who lawfully retains a debtor’s documents under a judicially recognized right of retention can incur tort liability for “abuse” by refusing to surrender the documents or provide their contents to tax authorities.
2. Whether, absent a statutory exception, a retentor has a duty to cooperate with third parties by communicating retained documents or information while the debt remains unpaid.

## Decision

- The high court quashed the appellate judgment that had imposed liability for “abuse” of the right of retention.
- It held that, absent contrary legislation, a lawful retentor may refuse to relinquish retained objects or documents until full payment of the secured debt.
- The appellate court erred by treating the refusal to provide documents or their contents to the tax administration as an abuse of the right of retention.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with these principles.

## Legal Principles

- A creditor who legitimately holds a debtor’s property under a right of retention may refuse to surrender it until the debt is fully paid, unless a statute provides otherwise.
- When retention is lawful and serves as security for payment, exercising the right by continued non-surrender is not, by itself, tortious “abuse.”
- A court may not create a cooperation obligation (e.g., providing retained documents or their informational content to third parties) that contradicts the core entitlement of retention absent a legislative basis.

## Conclusion

The court reaffirmed that a lawful right of retention allows a creditor to keep a debtor’s documents and refuse their release until payment, and that imposing tort liability for such refusal—without a statutory limitation—misstates the governing principles of retention.


Duval v. Chedot, J.C.P. 1970, II, 16162 (Cass. 1e civ. 1969)