Question juridique clé
Whether a direct constitutional complaint to the Federal Court was admissible without first exhausting the cantonal remedy available to the Appellations- und Kassationshof.
Solution extraite
The complaint was inadmissible because the cantonal instance had not been exhausted; the alleged violations could have been raised under Art. 362 Bernese ZPO before the Appellations- und Kassationshof.
Motifs extraits
Under settled Federal Court practice, complaints based on Art. 4 BV require exhaustion of cantonal remedies. Bernese procedural law allowed complaints to the appellate/cassation court for denial or delay of justice, improper treatment, and procedural defects, which the court interpreted broadly to include arbitrary violations of procedural and substantive law.