Oberster Gerichtshof, Beschluß vom 13/06/2001 7 Ob 117/01h
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2001:RS0115781
Date: 2001-06-13
Subject matter: Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968
Origin: Austria

82001AT0613(01)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The parties in dispute concluded a contract concerning a long term cooperation. Thereafter, the plaintiff company domiciled in Austria was obliged to sell a raw material to the defendant, a Netherlands company, which the latter had to process. The plaintiff then had to repurchase the produced good. The plaintiff requested from the defendant, payment regarding a delivery of raw material made under the contract. However, the defendant claimed before a Netherlands court payment on the basis of the modification of the price and the weight calculation as well as packing costs. Thus it requests the stay of the proceedings pursuant to Article 21 or 22 Brussels Convention. The court of first instance dismissed this request, since no irreconcilable decision is to be feared. The court of appeal however considers the interdependence of the claims invoked in the two proceedings on the basis of the same framework contract, to be so narrow that according to Article 21 Brussels Convention, the proceedings shall be suspended.
The OGH (AT) departs like the ECJ from a vast concept of subject matter of the dispute within Article 21 Brussels Convention, for which it is relevant if the same central issue is concerned in both proceedings. However, in this case the two claims have the same basis that is the framework contract of the parties, but not the same subject matter: the rights invoked do not refer to the same delivery, since the proceedings in the Netherlands concern earlier deliveries. Thus it does not concern identical disputes but only related proceedings. However, since on the basis of divergent interpretations, which cannot be excluded, concerning the framework contract founding both proceedings, the danger of irreconcilable decisions cannot from the outset be put aside, Article 22 Brussels Convention shall be applied, which allows in this case a stay of the proceedings.