Oberster Gerichtshof, Urteil vom 06/07/2011 6 Nc 12/11h
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2011:0060NC00012.11H.0706.000
Date: 2011-07-06
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Austria

82011AT0706(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The suing law firm was appointed by the Landesgericht of Innsbruck (AT) as an administrator of the insolvency of an Austrian company. It intended to bring an action against a German party for payment of sponsoring promised by it to the insolvent company. The insolvent company had concluded an agreement with the sued party in which it had been agreed that Austrian law was applicable and that a "forum in Austria" had jurisdiction. It did not contain any further details regarding the jurisdiction agreement. In particular, it did not state which Austrian court had local jurisdiction. The claimant applied to the OGH (AT) for a declaration as to the court holding local jurisdiction by way of the so-called "Ordination" in order to bring an action prepared by it.
The OGH examines whether the jurisdiction agreement meets the conditions of Article 23 Brussels I Regulation and thus is legally valid. It holds that this is the case. Without doubt there is a mutual agreement of the parties to the agreement in regard to the international jurisdiction of Austria. Furthermore, the requirement of writing of Article 23(1)(a) Brussels I Regulation has been fulfilled. The fact that the parties only agreed on international jurisdiction but not on the local jurisdiction of an Austrian court does not stand in the way of the validity of the agreement. In such a case, the court with local jurisdiction must be determined according to the law of the chosen Member State. Austrian law provides the procedure of "ordination", which the claimant has initiated. The OGH holds that the OLG of Innsbruck (AT) is the court with local jurisdiction over the dispute.