Corte di Cassazione, sentenza del 27/11/2000 1209 Wohnungs und Gewerbebau GmbH, P. Reichegger, H. Kuhn/Maltauro Costruzioni s.p.a., Deutsche Bank, Banco Ambrosiano veneto
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:IT:CASS:2000:1209CIV
Date: 2000-11-27
Subject matter: Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968
Origin: Italy

82000IT1127(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
A German company had commissioned an Italian company through the intermediary of its manager, an Italian citizen domiciled in Italy, of the building of a group of buildings in Germany. In this regard, a German bank stood security for the performance. After the termination of the works, the responsible of the German building site refused to sign the acceptance certificate on the basis of the existence of defects. Further to this, the German company claimed the performance guarantee. The payment made was charged to the Italian company. The latter argued that the manager and the responsible of the building site had acted fraudulently and sued them both as well as the German company in an Italy court for payment of damages. The defendants challenged the jurisdiction of the Italian courts, since the contract was the object of the dispute, and referred this question to the Corte di cassazione (IT).
The Corte di cassazione (IT) affirms the jurisdiction of the Italian courts, since on the one hand, extra-contractual rights for damages are invoked in this action on the basis of tortuous acts that the defendants are alleged to have committed. On the other hand, the jurisdiction of the Italian courts results from Article 6(1) Brussels Convention since one defendant is domiciled in Italy. According to this provision, a person domiciled in a Contracting State may also be sued where he is one of a number of defendants, in the courts for the place where any one of them is domiciled.