Tribunalul Brasov; 2016-05-30; 2296/62/2016
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLLRO :TBBRV :2016:007.000458
Date: 2016-05-30
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Romania

82016RO0530(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
This case regards a request for an account preservation order addressed to the Tribunalul Brașov (hereinafter ‘the Court of First Instance’).
A company domiciled in Romania (hereinafter ‘the plaintiff’) concluded a contract with a company domiciled in Italy (hereinafter ‘the defendant’). The plaintiff undertook to design, construct and commission a solar power plant, and the defendant undertook to pay the contract price. The plaintiff fulfilled its obligations and issued a certificate of completion of the power plant. The defendant failed to pay the agreed sum within the given deadline nor was the sum paid in the subsequent months. The contract included a clause pursuant to which arbitration will resolve the potential disputes, so the plaintiff applied before the Milan Chamber of Arbitration (Italy) and sought that the defendant be ordered to pay the full contractual price and damages caused amounting to more than EUR 21 million together with contractual interest until the date of actual payment.
Because of concerns that the defendant will move or hide the money before the arbitration decision, the plaintiff applied before the Court of First Instance and requested an account preservation order to freeze funds in the defendant’s bank account.
The Court of First Instance cited Articles 970 and 971 in conjunction with Articles 953 to 959 of the Codul de Procedură Civilă (1). It held that the account preservation order might regard the sums of money, securities or other movable assets that the debtor owes, and which may be enforced. Such order might be granted if the creditor’s claim is established in writing and is due or the creditor proves the commencement of proceedings to repay the debt.
The Court of First Instance found that, in the present case, the plaintiff’s claim is well established in writing and is due and payable according to the contract validly agreed between the parties. The plaintiff also reliably proved that it had filed a request for arbitration in Italy, seeking repayment of the remaining debt.
Therefore, the legal requirements to issue the account preservation order were fulfilled, and the application must be granted. The Court of First Instance decided that the money in the defendant’s bank account would be frozen pending the decision of Italian arbitration. However, according to Article 953 of the Codul de Procedură Civilă, the plaintiff must pay to the court a security deposit of EUR 150.000 within 30 days of notification of this judgment.
(1) Codul de Procedură Civilă (Code of Civil Procedure).