OGH; 2020-02-27; 2 Ob96/19k
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2020:0020OB00096.19K.0227.000
Date: 2020-02-27
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Austria

82020AT0227(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
A private person domiciled in Austria (hereinafter ‘the plaintiff’) brought an action against a defendant (hereinafter ‘the defendant’) seeking the payment of compensation.
The plaintiff claimed that the defendant had intentionally and unlawfully carried out a compulsory conversion of government bonds acquired by the plaintiff against bonds with a reduced nominal value. The defendant relied on the Greek debt restructuring act which, however, was not to be applied in this case as the defendant had not issued the respective bonds under Greek but English law.
According to the plaintiff, the international jurisdiction of the seised Court of First Instance resulted from Article 7(1)(a) or Article 7(2) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (1).
The Court of First Instance dismissed the action citing a lack of both domestic and international jurisdiction.
The Oberlandesgericht (hereinafter ‘the Court of Appeal’) confirmed this decision.
The extraordinary revision filed by the plaintiff with the Oberstes Gerichtshof was not successful.
According to a previous ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union in a similar case concerning purchase of Greek government bonds on the secondary market (2), the defendant had exercised its sovereign rights protected by state immunity upon the adoption of the debt restructuring act.
The Oberstes Gerichtshof dismissed the extraordinary revision filed by the plaintiff stating that the preconditions under Article 528(1) ZPO (3) had not been met.
(1) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
(2) Judgment of the Court of Justice of 15 November 2018, Hellenische Republik v Leo Kuhn, C-308/17, ECLI:EU:C:2018:911.
(3) Gesetz vom 1. August 1895 über das gerichtliche Verfahren in bürgerlichen Rechtsstreitigkeiten (Act of 1 August 1895, the Austrian Code of Civil Procedure).