Višje sodišče v Ljubljani; 2025-01-10; I Cp 1797/2024
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:SI:VSLJ:2025:I.CP.1797.2024
Date: 2025-01-10
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Slovenia

82025SI0110(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
The plaintiff misinterprets Article 7(3) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (1). Under that provision, ‘a person domiciled in a Member State may be sued in another Member State, as regards a civil claim for damages or restitution which is based on an act giving rise to criminal proceedings, in the court seised of those proceedings, to the extent that that court has jurisdiction under its own law to entertain civil proceedings’.
This provision of the Regulation thus establishes an additional ground of international jurisdiction where national law allows the assertion of private interests within criminal proceedings, and it confers jurisdiction on the criminal court that has instituted the criminal proceedings to hear the civil claim. Consequently, that provision cannot be relied upon as a basis for bringing a civil action before any other national court, even if that court is more closely connected than the one before which the criminal proceedings were brought.
The possibility for a plaintiff to sue a defendant under Article 7(3) of the Regulation, by virtue of the inclusion of the civil claim in the criminal proceedings, is often linked to more favourable rules on evidence and procedural costs. In view of the foregoing, the Court of Appeal finds that, under Article 7(3) of the Regulation, the civil court does not have jurisdiction to hear the civil claim; jurisdiction would lie only with the criminal court that had instituted the criminal proceedings.
(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 (recast).