Vrhovno sodišče RS; 2017-10-26; Cpg 3/2017
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:SI:VSRS:2017:CPG.3.2017
Date: 2017-10-26
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Slovenia

82017SI1026(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
The plaintiff sought a declaration of enforceability for an Italian judgment, which was passed within Italian appellate procedure and thus had a close relation to an Italian first instance decision, which was not requested to be enforced in Slovenia.
The Okrožno sodišče v Ljubljani (hereinafter ‘the Court of First Instance’) declared the foreign judgment enforceable in Slovenia invoking Article 38 of the Brussels I Regulation (1), according to which ‘a judgment given in a Member State and enforceable in that State shall be enforced in another Member State when, on the application of any interested party, it has been declared enforceable there’.
The case was further examined by the Vrhovno sodišče Republike Slovenije (hereinafter ‘the Supreme Court’) and the Ustavno sodišče Republike Slovenije (Constitutional Court).
In the renewed procedure, the Supreme Court held that the decision in the appellate procedure constitutes an enforceable title according to Italian law. However, the (Italian) first instance decision must also be considered, since only that one specifies the obligation between the parties; only a common assessment of both (Italian) first instance and appellate decisions should constitute relevant enforceable title. In the present case, it was not clear enough what the obligation between parties really was, thus the Court of First Instance applied Article 38 of the Brussels I Regulation erroneously and prematurely.
Therefore, the Supreme Court referred the case back to the Court of First Instance for a new procedure, in which the Court of First Instance should ask the plaintiff to supplement his request with precise definitions of the obligation which the defendant must fulfil in his favour and then the Court of First Instance must assess the application again.
(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.