On 05/25/23, the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Dias Toffoli determined the suspension of all labor lawsuits in which it is discussed whether companies from the same economic group can be included in the execution phase.
The decision was taken in the Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 1387795, which has recognized general repercussion (Topic 1,232). The appeal reached the Supreme Court, as the company Rodovias das Colinas S.A questioned a decision by a panel of judges of the Superior Labor Court (TST) that upheld the levy of execution of its assets to settle the payment of labor credits arising from the condemnation of another company that belongs to the same economic group.
The appellant alleged that, although the companies have common shareholders and economic interests, they are not subordinated or controlled by the same management. It also affirmed that the recognition of its joint and several liability, only in the execution phase, without the presentation of a defense and its participation in the evidence production phase, is at odds with what the Code of Civil Procedure establishes (article 513, § 5), which provides for the impossibility of the satisfaction of judgment being determined against a co-responsible party who did not participate in the cognizance phase of the lawsuit.
In the decision, the minister affirmed that: “this legal scenario, in numerous cases of labor execution, has implied constriction of the assets (often in a considerable way) of a company alien to the cognizance process that, despite supposedly being part of the economic group, did not have the opportunity to at least make a statement, in advance, about the specific and precise requirements, which indicate that it composes (or not) an economic labor group (which is provided only after posting an undertaking in court, in a motion to stay execution)”.
The suspension, if approved by the full court, will remain until the definitive judgment of the RE 1387795 by the panel of judges of the STF, which does not yet have a date.
