Interest payments / French law / Guarantor's liability, yes / Interest capitalized at the end of each year /Extension of the guarantee to the capitalization of interest, no

'Whereas the Defendant must abide by the abovestated contractual interests, and shall therefore be sentenced to pay interest, at the contractual rate, starting from the date the principal funds were at his disposal. The said rate will be increased as provided by article ... [of the contract], from the date of maturity of each unpaid amount.

Whereas Claimant furthermore requests that the interests on overdue payments should be capitalized at the end of each year, in accordance with the provision of article … which states: "These interests will themselves carry interest at the above-determined rate if they are owed for a whole year".

Whereas no provision in the guarantee agreement dated ... extends the Guarantor's obligation to the capitalization of interest on overdue payments. Since the agreement is silent on this point, the guarantee cannot be extended to the capitalization of interest on overdue payments. If that had been the parties' will, they would have included it in the guarantee bond.

Whereas this interpretation of the will of the parties, resulting evidently from the guarantee agreement, is confirmed by numerous items of correspondence, letters or telexes, addressed by Claimant to Defendant from 1983 to 1986; although the Claimant requested with scrupulous care the amount of all unpaid balances, principal and interest, he never, in any circumstances, demanded from the Guarantor the benefit of a capitalization of interest on overdue payments, that would allegedly have been due.

Therefore the Tribunal holds that the Guarantor is not committed by the capitalization of interest on overdue payments demanded by the Claimant.'