Question juridique clé
Whether a federal appeal is admissible against a cantonal judgment dismissing a revision action aimed at reopening a final prior cantonal judgment.
Solution extraite
No. A final cantonal judgment cannot be indirectly reopened through a later cantonal revision action and then brought again before the Federal Court by appeal.
Motifs extraits
The challenge was in substance directed at the earlier judgment of 1905, which had become final after the withdrawal of the first appeal. In the system of separate cantonal and federal judicial sovereignty, a final cantonal judgment may be attacked only according to the applicable cantonal procedural law, apart from the autonomous federal constitutional remedy. The revision proceeding concerned only a preliminary evidentiary question under cantonal law, not a new federal-law merits decision reviewable by the Federal Court.