Oberster Gerichtshof, Urteil vom 06/05/2002 2 Ob 78/02p
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2002:RS0116423
Date: 2002-05-06
Subject matter: Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968
Origin: Austria

82002AT0506(01)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The claimant, domiciled in Austria, lodged a claim before the Landesgericht of Klagenfurt (AT) against the defendant, domiciled in Slovenia, for the settlement of outstanding invoices. The claimant argued jurisdiction under Article 17 Lugano Convention as it had been agreed Austria would be the place of jurisdiction. The court dismissed the claim due to a lack of jurisdiction. The claimant’s appeal to the Oberlandesgericht of Graz (AT) was unsuccessful. As Slovenia is Member State neither to the Lugano Convention nor the Brussels Convention, only jurisdiction under the Brussels Convention, to which Austria has acceded, comes into question. Article 17 Brussels Convention however requires a connection to another Contracting State, which is not present in this case. As this provision is closely bound to Article 18 Brussels Convention, Article 18 is also does not at issue, meaning the Landesgericht could dismiss the case in limine. The claimant lodged an appeal before the OGH (AT).
The OGH finds the appeal to be without merit. The court has already decided that Article 17 Brussels Convention requires a further connection to another Contracting State and the application requirements of Article 17 must be read into Article 18 as a result of their systematic connection. Whether the former determination remains applicable under the decisions of the ECJ (C-412/98 Group Josi 13.07.2000 and C-387/98 Coreck 9.11.2000) may be left open. In this case, because an agreement was made only on international jurisdiction, local jurisdiction must be determined according to the domestic law of the deferred state. Accordingly, no local jurisdiction of the Landesgericht of Klagenfurt arises, as submitted by the claimant. Because local jurisdiction is to be determined under Austrian law, an isolated application of Article 18 Brussels Convention on local jurisdiction does not come into consideration. The Landesgericht therefore correctly dismissed the claim in limine.