Order — ECLI:EU:T:1999:297
Date: 1999-11-24
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Administrative complaint;Admissibility and examination of applications, forms of order sought and pleas in law;Mandatory nature
Procedure: Staff cases - inadmissible

Summary of the Order 
1. Officials — Actions — Time-limits — Mandatory — Conditions relating to time-limits 
may be examined by the Court of its own motion 
(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91) 
2. Procedure — Time-limits for bringing an action — Actions brought out of time — 
Application for legal aid — No effect on procedural time-limits 
(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 42, second para.) 
II - 3383
SUMMARY — CASE T-109/98 
1. The conditions governing the admissi­
bility of an action, as laid down in 
Articles 90 and 91 of the Staff Regula­
tions, in particular those relating to the 
time-limit for bringing an action, are a 
matter of public policy and the Com­
munity judicature may, therefore, 
examine them of its own motion. 
2. Since the strict application of Commu­
nity rules on procedural time-limits 
serves the requirement of legal cer­
tainty and the need to avoid any 
discrimination or arbitrary treatment 
in the administration of justice, there 
can be no derogation from the applica­
tion of those rules unless there is a 
quite exceptional case of unforeseeable 
circumstances or force majeure as 
required by the second paragraph of 
Article 42 of the EC Statute of the 
Court of Justice. 
It cannot therefore be accepted that the 
making of an application for legal aid, 
in itself and independently of the 
circumstances of the case, has the effect 
of extending or suspending the period 
prescribed for bringing the action. 
II - 3384