Oberster Gerichtshof, Urteil vom 17/05/2001 7 Ob 29/01t
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2001:RS0115274
Date: 2001-05-17
Subject matter: Lugano Convention
Origin: Austria

82001AT0517(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The plaintiff company domiciled in Switzerland requires from the defendants, a company seated in Austria, and its previous Swedish sole shareholder, payment on the basis of non respected obligations. The defendants had been part of a group of companies of the legal predecessor of the plaintiff and after the separation undertook for the plaintiff to take over certain employees and the performance of production activities. According to the plaintiff, the common jurisdiction results from Article 6(1) Lugano Convention. The court of first instance relied on a connection between the claims against the defendants which made it seem appropriate to have common proceedings. The court of appeal on the other hand considered the effective conditions in this regard as not yet sufficiently determined.
The OGH (AT) finds on the one hand that for a common procedure against several persons pursuant to Article 6(1) Lugano Convention, a certain connection shall exist between the claims The latter is at hand where contradicting decisions could result from a separate negotiation. This is always the case where the claims against the parties concerned are essentially homogeneous regarding facts or legal matters, which is to be determined according to the lex causae. For this requirement of connection, the burden of the proof is on the plaintiff claiming a common court. Whether the plaintiff satisfied this in the present case, remains to be determined.