Property Sale Annulment for Fraudulent Concealment of Defects

A plaintiff, having entered into a contract for the sale of a property, sought judicial annulment of the sale, claiming that the seller had engaged in fraudulent concealment by failing to disclose known defects affecting the property's structure, which the plaintiff argued amounted to a hidden defect under the relevant civil code articles, thereby vitiating consent. The court dismissed the appeal, reasoning that while the seller has an obligation to disclose defects, the claim of fraudulent concealment requires proof that the seller intentionally misrepresented or concealed facts known to them that materially affected the transaction, and in this case, the lower court's finding that the purported defects were either publicly known or discoverable upon reasonable inspection, or that the seller lacked the requisite fraudulent intent to mislead the buyer, justified the refusal to annul the sale based on hidden defects or fraud.