The rule is simple: the defaulting party's time limit for challenging a ruling shall runs from the moment when it has knowledge of the adverse ruling. The rule applies both to ordinary civil proceedings (art. 163 and ff. of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure) and to summary judgement proceedings (art. 702 bis and ff. of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure). Let's consider both cases.

In the ordinary civil proceedings, the short-term time limit for challenging the ruling shall not run until the defaulting party is notified personally with the adverse decision: this provision is set forth by article 292, last paragraph of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure. The rule applies both in the case of notification of the ruling alone (according to article 326 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure) and in the case of notification of the decision together with the act of enforcement (article 479 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure). In other words, in line with established case-law, it does not matter the reason why the ruling has been notified, what really matters is that the defaulting party has the legal knowledge of the decision by the notification (see Italian Civil Supreme Court, Section II, 05.04.1996 no. 3188 in Giust. Civ. Mass. 1996, 510).

For the sake of a complete information, it should be noted that, according to a different and apparently contrary case-law applicable to the party duly appeared before the Court, the “…ruling's notification for enforcement purposes (specifically, along with the act of enforcement) addressed to the party personally and not to its attorney according to article 170 para. 1 and art. 282 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, is enough to let the short-term time limit for challenging run, whether in the interest of the notifying party or in the interest of the notified party …” (see Italian Civil Supreme Court, Section III, 13.08.2015 no. 16804; Italian Civil Supreme Court, Section III, 10.06.2010 no. 16804).

Similar principles govern the challenging of the decisions rendered at the end of the summary judgement proceedings: for the party who regularly appeared, the short-term time limit to challenge the decision according to article 702 ter para. 6 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure shall run both by means of the notification by the other party and by means of the communication of the decision sent by the Court clerk's office; the deadline for challenging is 30 days.

For the same reason, if the decision is rendered during a hearing and the losing party has already entered the proceedings, no communication or notification will be necessary since the party is presumed to have knowledge of the decision in accordance with art. 172, para. 2 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure.

On the contrary, if the decision is not ruled during a hearing, the time period of 30 days for the challenging shall run from the date of the service of the decision by the Court clerk's office (see article 702 quater of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, see also Italian Civil Supreme Court, Section II, 14.07.2021, no. 20071).

For the defaulting party, the 30 days' time shall run only after receiving the service of the decision by the winning party; thus, the fact that the decision rendered has been issued during the hearing or not, is irrelevant. Whenever the decision is not notified to the defaulting party, article 327 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure shall apply. Therefore, the long-term time limit for challenging will apply and it will run from the date of the publication of the ruling.

A distinction should be made for the “accidental” defaulting party when the defendant is wrongfully considered defaulting party by the judge, who has failed to detect any defects in the subpoena or in the notification of the latter; when it happens, the long-term limit for the challenging may expand considerably when the invalidity of the service occurs according to under article 327 paragraph 2 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure.

Nevertheless, the short-term time limit shall run regularly upon “… valid notification of the ruling to the defaulting party …” (see Italian Supreme Court, Section III, 13.11.2018 no. 29037).

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.