Brandenburgisches Oberlandesgericht; 2018-10-24; 7 U 172/16
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:DE:OLGBB:2018:1024.7U172.16.00
Date: 2018-10-24
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Germany

82018DE1024(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
In its claim, a tax accounting firm (hereinafter ‘the plaintiff’) requested compensation for damages from the chairperson (hereinafter ‘the defendant’) of a company domiciled in Poland (hereinafter simply ‘the GmbH’) for which it carried out the bookkeeping and produced annual balance sheets.
The GmbH was obliged to pay the plaintiff an amount of money by an order to pay made by the Wroclaw District Court in Poland. After the enforcement brought against the GmbH was unsuccessful, the defendant as the chairperson is jointly and severally liable to the plaintiff pursuant to the Polish commercial code.
The Landgericht Cottbus (hereinafter ‘the Court of First Instance’) granted the plaintiff’s claim.
The defendant’s appeal against the order of the Court of First Instance to the Brandenburgisches Oberlandesgericht (hereinafter ‘the Court of Appeal’) was unsuccessful.
The Court of First Instance rightly recognised the order to pay made by Wroclaw District Court pursuant to Article 33(3) of the Brussels I Regulation (1).
The defendant proved that there are grounds for excluding his liability pursuant to Article 299(2) of the Polish commercial code. He neither put forward the application for opening the insolvency proceedings, i.e. compromise proceedings, within the specified time, nor did he prove that the failure to put forward the application for opening the insolvency proceedings or compromise proceedings was not due to his fault.
The nature of his role as chairperson alone obliges him to examine the level of indebtedness of the GmbH.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the defendant’s appeal.
(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.