Tribunal da Relação de Guimarães; 2021-11-04; 674/21.9T8BCL.G1
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:PT:TRG:2021:674.21.9T8BCL.G1.31
Date: 2021-11-04
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Portugal

82021PT1104(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
I. The case concerns a declaration of enforceability in Portugal of a judgment given in the Member State of origin under the Brussels I Regulation (1), the processing of which does not follow the traditional procedure. By virtue of the authority of a judgment given in a Member State, the procedure is extremely simplified, and the initial evidence required of the plaintiff is minimal (a copy of the foreign judgment and a certificate of recognition of enforceability).
II. At the appeal stage, the plaintiff was confronted with the defendant’s argument that it was not a legitimate party to the proceedings and that it had not been reliably summoned to the proceedings before the ‘court of origin’ (ground for appeal admissible under Article 38 of the Brussels I Regulation (2)). It is, therefore, admissible for the plaintiff to submit documents to the pleadings in order to prove the identity of the defendant company and correct service of documents (as provided by Article 425 in conjunction with Article 651 of the CPC (3)). This is especially so if the defendant/appellant has also submitted documents.
III. Article 659 of the new French NCPC (4), which provides for the service of documents ‘at the office’ (formalities involving the sending of a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt at the last known address of a legal person which no longer has a known establishment, followed by a simple letter of the completion of the formality), sufficiently guarantees the rights of the defence and does not infringe principles of public policy.
IV. This is particularly so if the letter of summons and notification of the judgment against the defendant legal entity was sent to the address of the establishment that the Portuguese company, registered in France as a ‘foreign company’, kept in ‘X’, the company’s official registration document. Thus, all the conditions were in place for it to be aware of the acts. It was up to the company to update its data in the register (and registration document) or collect correspondence at its domicile. Moreover, Portuguese procedural law provides for a similar form of service (Article 246 of the CPC).
(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.
(2) Note: the judgment refers to Article 38 of the Brussels I Regulation, but the court may have had in mind Article 34 instead).
(3) Código de Processo Civil (Code of Civil Procedure).
(4) Nouveau Code de Procédure Civile (New Code of Civil Procedure).