OLG Frankfurt; 2019-04-05; 4 UF 35/19
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:DE:OLGHE:2019:0405.4UF35.18.00
Date: 2019-04-05
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Germany

82019DE0405(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
The case concerns a wife’s (hereinafter ‘the defendant’) complaint seeking the rejection of her husband’s (hereinafter ‘the plaintiff’) application for divorce. The plaintiff and the defendant are both Iranian nationals. They married and lived together in Iran for about 2 years. Then their marriage failed and the plaintiff applied for divorce by pronouncing the divorce formula ‘talaq’ three times before witnesses at a court hearing and the application for divorce was served to the defendant. The defendant opposed the application and demanded the payment of a dowry. Both spouses had their habitual residence in Germany between the service of the petition for divorce and the last oral hearing. Therefore, the German courts had international jurisdiction under Article 3(1)(a) of the new Brussels II Regulation (1).
The Familiengericht Frankfurt am Main (the Court of First Instance) dissolved the marriage at the plaintiff’s request and ordered that a maintenance settlement should not take place, taking into account, as appropriate, the substantive Iranian divorce law under Article 19 of the Rome III Regulation (2). The defendant lodged an appeal seeking the annulment of the first instance decision on several grounds (procedural irregularity due to her absence from the divorce pronouncement, entitlement to payment of the dowry and maintenance).
The Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main (the Court of Appeal) affirmed the existence of the conditions for divorce under Iranian and German law. The appeal was dismissed, albeit the contested first instance decision was slightly reworded in a clarifying manner concerning the maintenance settlement.
(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, repealing Regulation (EC) No 1347/2000.
(2) Council Regulation (EU) No 1259/2010 of 20 December 2010 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the law applicable to divorce and legal separation.