Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:517
Date: 2002-09-19
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Appeal - unfounded;Appeal - inadmissible;Staff cases

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Procedure — Decision replacing, in the course of the proceedings, the contested 
decision — Replacement of a decision refusing the reinstallation allowance by a 
decision granting it but operating a set-off against allowances wrongly received by the 
applicant — Different subject-matter — Extension of the initial claims for relief and 
pleadings — Not permitted 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-217/01 P 
2. Appeals •— Fleas in law — Flea put forward for the first time in the appeal — 
Inadmissible 
(Rules of Procedure of the Court of justice, Art. 42(1), first subpara.) 
1. An applicant may amend his heads of 
claim and pleas in law following the 
replacement by a decision, in the 
course of the proceedings, of a previous 
decision with the same subject-matter. 
That is not the case if the contested 
decision is one refusing the reinstal­
lation allowance and if, in the course of 
the proceedings, it is replaced by a 
decision granting it to the applicant but 
also requiring him to repay sums 
wrongly paid to him in respect of the 
installation allowance. The decision 
replacing the contested decision does 
not have the same subject-matter since 
it establishes a set-off between the 
amount overpaid to the applicant and 
that of the sums due to him. It follows 
therefrom that in such a case the 
applicant should not be given leave to 
amend his claims and pleas. 
(see paras 29-30) 
2. To allow a party to put forward for the 
first time before the Court of Justice a 
plea in law which it has not raised 
before the Court of First Instance 
would be to allow it to bring before 
the former, whose jurisdiction in 
appeals is limited, a case of wider 
ambit than that which came before 
the Court of First Instance. In an 
appeal the jurisdiction of the Court of 
Justice is confined to review of the 
findings of law on the pleas argued 
before the Court of First Instance. 
(see para. 37) 
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