Oberster Gerichtshof, Urteil vom 29/01/2003 7 Ob 291/02y
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2003:RS0117398
Date: 2003-01-29
Subject matter: Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968
Origin: Austria

82003AT0129(06)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The plaintiff is an insurance company, which recompensated its insured for the losses which had arisen as a result of an explosion on the latter's factory premises. Now, the plaintiff seeks damages by way of recourse from the supplier of the filters for the plant which exploded, having its seat in Germany,
whose defective filters had caused the explosion. However, the filters had not been delivered to the plaintiff's insured, but to the owner of the plant who was not identical to the insured.
While the Landesgericht of Linz held that it had jurisdiction on the basis of Article 5(3) Brussels Convention, the appellate court dismissed the action due to lack of international jurisdiction of the Austrian courts.
Upon the plaintiff's appeal, the OGH (AT) re-establishes the first instance judgment. It firstly holds that contractual relations must exist between the parties (respectively the predecessors in title) in order for Article 5(1) Brussels Convention to apply, while the mere protective effect of a third party beneficiary contract (in the present case for the benefit of the plaintiff's insured) is not sufficient. Thus, the jurisdiction over matters relating to tort, delict, or quasi-delict according to Article 5 (3) Brussels Convention is opened with regards to the action for damages, as according to the required autonomous interpretation, all liability claims which are not closely connected to a contract between the parties of a dispute (respectively their predecessors in title) are governed by this provision.