WHEN IS A PARCEL DELIVERED IF IT FAILS TO BE DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO THE ADDRESSEE?

The moment of delivery can be very crucial, as delivery is often associated with other legal effects (e.g. termination of the contract in case of withdrawal, start of the notice period in case of termination, etc.). In order to facilitate the determination of the moment when the delivery of the parcel took place, the law provides for the so-called presumption of the time of delivery. Let's see how this presumption works and what its practical implications may be.

Delivery is the alpha and omega of legal relations, whether it concerns parcels or documents. But what if the addressee does not collect the parcel?

Legal action against an absent person

In general, this issue is regulated by Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code (hereinafter referred to as the "CC"), specifically in the provisions of Sections 570-573. According to Section 570 CC, a legal act performed towards an absent person is effective from the moment the expression of will reaches him, however, in the event that this person intentionally prevents the arrival, it is deemed to have duly occurred. An act against an absent person occurs, in principle, when the persons do not communicate with each other in an immediate communication. However, this is not a physical immediacy, i.e. it can also be the use of e.g. telephone communication or the use of other online means of communication such as Skype.

Delivery by postal services

Let's take a look at the delivery of parcels. The aforementioned presumption of the time of arrival is regulated in Section 573 CC, whereby a parcel sent using a postal service provider is presumed to have arrived on the third working day after dispatch, but if it was sent to an address in another country, then on the fifteenth working day after dispatch.

It is important to note at the outset that the presumption of time of arrival applies only to consignments for which proof of arrival has been provided. This means that the presumption of time of arrival applies to a consignment only when it reaches the addressee's sphere of disposition, i.e. when the addressee has had the opportunity to acquaint himself with it.

Postal services are then regulated by Act No 29/2000 Coll., the Postal Services Act, however, a list of postal service operators is available on the website of the Czech Telecommunications Office http://www.ctu.cz.

A working day means every calendar day except Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

It should also be taken into account that this is a rebuttable presumption, i.e. it can be rebutted either by proving a different time of delivery or at least by proving that the delivery did not or could not have taken place at the time specified by the presumption (e.g. local disturbances at the place of delivery may preclude delivery of the parcel).

And how does it all work in practice?

To illustrate the theoretical principles mentioned above, let us take the example of a pre-suit notice. In accordance with the established case law (Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, Case No. 26 Cdo 2988/2011, dated 13 November 2012), a pre-suit summons must be deemed to have been served at the moment when the addressee had the opportunity to become objectively acquainted with it, i.e. at the moment when the parcel was deposited with the postal service operator, and the addressee was informed of this by the postal service operator. Therefore, if the deposit with the postal service provider for failure to reach the addressee occurred, for example, on 22 August 2023, the service of the pre-action notice also occurred on that date, pursuant to Article 570(1) of the Civil Code.

Thus, if the consignment (in our example, the pre-suit notice) had demonstrably reached the addressee and been sent by the postal service operator on, for example, 21 August 2023 (but it could not be proved that the exact date of its delivery to the addressee or, for example, that it had been deposited with the postal service operator), then, on the basis of the presumption of time of receipt, the pre-suit notice would have reached the addressee on 24 August 2023.

If you have any questions in relation to this or related issues, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to learn more about your case and provide you with appropriate legal assistance.

Kateřina Chaloupková collaborated on the article.