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THE DEVIL'SSTRIPSNo.XIV — The Wrong TrackA real order, word for word.C. App. Rome · Div. I · 12.6.2026click on the right to flip through →
THE AGRICULTURAL CO-OPLand, warehouse, machinery.Talks with creditorshave failed. We need a plan.After the negotiated composition collapses, the cooperative files a simplified liquidatingarrangement: seven lots of assets to sell — property, land, receivables, rents, machinery.
THE COOPERATIVETHE COURT AUXILIARYA €5,000 chequeas security on lot 2.The cheque is for €305.Not €5,000. And the offerdoesn't even have a deadline.The court auxiliary and the expert find discrepancies: overstated guarantees,generic appraisals, receivables with no proof of recoverability.
THE COOPERATIVETRIB. CIVITAVECCHIAWe supplemented the proposalwith new documents in December.They should have been thereon 4 July, with the original proposal.Late. Inadmissible.Art. 4 CCII: transparency and fair disclosure. Late additions on asset conditionsbreach the principles of the simplified arrangement — even if requested by the auxiliary.
TRIB. CIVITAVECCHIATHE COOPERATIVEApproval denied.And controlled liquidation?Inadmissible too.Appeal to the Court of Appeal.You reviewed the meritsof the plan far too much!The Tribunal rejects both the simplified arrangement and, in the alternative, controlled liquidation.The cooperative appeals, arguing excessive judicial review of the plan's merits.
C. APP. ROMECooperatives don't runon the ordinary track.Compulsory administrativeliquidation. Or nothing.Heart of the ruling: agricultural cooperatives follow art. 2545-terdecies c.c. and art. 295 CCII.Only when they run a commercial activity does the bankruptcy/judicial-liquidation track apply (Cass. 880/2026).
ADVOCATUS DIABOLIC. APP. ROMEBut if it's a purely mutual-aidcooperative, what's left?Only compulsory administrativeliquidation. The simplifiedarrangement isn't an alternative.Without a commercial purpose, an agricultural cooperative's crisis can only be resolved throughthe administrative procedure: the Tribunal may declare insolvency (art. 298 CCII), not open ordinary insolvency.
THE COOPERATIVEC. APP. ROMEThe receivables to recoverare worth €147,000!But recovering themneeds lawsuits. And costseat into the distributable assets.The plan wobbles on the merits too: time-barred claims to write off, overstated guarantees,future litigation not budgeted in the plan. Dispositive flaws, enough to sink the whole thing.
C. APP. ROMEAppeal dismissed.The order stands.Costs: €5,500to each appearing party.P.Q.M.: the Court dismisses the appeal and confirms Civitavecchia's rejection.Orders the cooperative to pay costs to every appearing party. Rome, 12.6.2026.
THE DEVIL'S POSTSCRIPTpro-veritate opinionNot every distressed business runs on the same track.Cooperatives — agricultural ones especially — have theirown regime: compulsory administrative liquidation, not judicial.The simplified arrangement is a powerful tool, but a fickle one:one late document, one inflated guarantee, one €305 chequepassed off as €5,000, and the whole thing collapses.And if the track is wrong from the start, no plan —however well drafted — can save the run.Moral: before you run, check which track you're on.ADVOCATUS DIABOLI
APPEAL DISMISSED.The agricultural cooperativedoesn't choose its own track.— C. App. Rome, Div. I, order 12.6.2026 · Advocatus Diaboli

😈 «An agricultural cooperative in crisis tries a simplified arrangement: seven lots to sell, a €305 cheque passed off as €5,000, a generic appraisal. It all collapses. And when it tries the shortcut of controlled liquidation, the Supreme Court reminds it of something nobody had said: cooperatives don't run on the ordinary track. Theirs is a different train.»

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☕ « If you'd like to buy me a coffee, the link is somewhere around the site… alas, my London colleagues turn it straight into beer 🍺. » 😈😈 …but a smile remains 😏🙂

LE STRISCEDEL DIAVOLON.XIVThe Wrong Track

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The Wrong Track

C. App. Roma · Sez. I · decreto 12.6.2026

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