Art. 2002 Annulment for vices of form; time for action

If a court judgment was made in one of three unfair ways, the law says it can be canceled (annulled). This rule lists those three situations.

First, if someone who is legally incompetent (unable to represent themselves in court) was sued but did not have a proper legal representative, the judgment against them can be thrown out. Second, if a defendant was never properly notified about the lawsuit (called "served with process") and didn't give up their right to challenge this, and no valid default judgment was entered against them, the judgment can be canceled. Third, if the court that made the decision never had the legal authority to handle that type of case in the first place, the judgment is invalid.

The rule also says that people usually have unlimited time to ask a court to cancel a judgment for these reasons. There is no deadline, unless another rule (Article 2003) says otherwise. This means someone could challenge an old judgment years later if one of these serious problems applies.