Questão jurídica principal
Whether the appeal to the Federal Court was filed within the statutory 20-day period
Decisão extraída
The appeal period began with the cantonal judgment's oral publication and service to the duly summoned representative; later private notice by counsel did not postpone the deadline.
Fundamentação extraída
Federal law leaves the form and time of notification of cantonal judgments to cantonal law. Under Basel civil procedure, an appellate judgment is deemed communicated when parties or their representatives are summoned to and attend the session of publication. Since the claimant's representative was duly summoned and present, the federal 20-day period ran from 5 September 1878 and was missed.