By Raphaël MORENON
28 March 2025
The "appel en garantie" is a powerful procedural tool, making it possible to bring a third party into a lawsuit so that it will bear any penalties that may be imposed. Although a fundamental tool in civil and commercial litigation, its relationship with mechanisms such as joint and several liability or arbitration reveals complexities that are often little understood. This article, updated in 2024, provides an overview of its fundamentals, before exploring the more specific aspects that are essential for securing a party's interests and optimising its legal strategy in France.Definition: the concept of a guarantee and its procedural implicationsThe term "guarantee" covers several realities in law. In procedural terms, it is used either as a principal claim, where the creditor has sued the guarantor directly, or as an incidental claim, within proceedings that have already begun. It is in this second case that we speak of a guarantee call, a form of forced intervention defined by article 331 of the Code of procedure...
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