Nejvyšší soud; 2017-06-26; 20 Nd 172/2017
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:CZ:NS:2017:20.ND.172.2017.1
Date: 2017-06-26
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Czechia

82017CZ0626(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
A bailiff requested the Okresní soud v Břeclavi (hereinafter ‘the Court of First Instance’) to authorise him for an enforcement of a European payment order against a Hungarian company in the benefit of a Czech company. The Court of First Instance judged that the Czech courts had jurisdiction in this case on the basis of Article 5(1)(a) of the Brussels I Regulation (1), but it could not be determined which specific Czech court had jurisdiction. Therefore, the Court of First Instance declared the lack of its jurisdiction to hear the request and, based on paragraph 11(3) of the o.s.ř. (2), asked the Nejvyšší soud (hereinafter ‘the Supreme Court’) to decide which specific court had jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court has made clear that in cases where the court declares itself incompetent to hear a dispute and asks the Supreme Court for a decision concerning jurisdiction by virtue of paragraph 11(3) of the o.s.ř., the Supreme Court is not entitled to examine the international jurisdiction of Czech courts specifically.
In such situation, the Supreme Court determines the court having jurisdiction on the basis of the principle of economy of the proceedings. Therefore, the jurisdiction of this case belonged to the Court of First Instance, which had already performed the initial actions in this case and which was also the court having local jurisdiction on the basis of the seat of the company in benefit of which was the request sought.
(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) Občanský soudní řád (Code of Civile Procedure).