OGH; 2020-01-23; 6 Ob 174/19k
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2020:0060OB00174.19K.0123.000
Date: 2020-01-23
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Austria

82020AT0123(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
A private person domiciled in Austria (hereinafter ‘the plaintiff’) brought an action against the EU Member State Greece (hereinafter ‘the defendant’) seeking the payment of interest and the nominal value of the acquired government bonds.
The plaintiff claimed that the defendant, as the issuer, unlawfully violated the respective rights of the plaintiff by carrying out a malicious compulsory conversion of these bonds.
According to the opinion of the plaintiff, the seised Landgericht held international jurisdiction under the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (1) due to the fact that the respective government bonds had been issued not under Greek but English law.
Both the seised Landgericht and the Oberlandesgericht Graz (hereinafter ‘the Court of Appeal’) within the appellate proceedings rejected the international jurisdiction of the Austrian courts.
The Oberstes Gerichtshof (hereinafter ‘the Supreme Court’) dismissed the revision filed by the plaintiff due to a lack of the necessary preconditions under Article 528(1) 1 ZPO (2).
Originally, the plaintiff relied on the issuance of the government bonds under Greek law. According to a previous decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (3), such dispute would not fall into the applicability of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) due to the fact that the defendant acted as a sovereign state when adopting the debt restructuring act to carry out the compulsory conversion. Therefore, the conversion did not represent a civil or commercial matter under Article 1(1) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast).
If the bonds, however, had been issued under English law as the plaintiff argued in this case, he could be able to pursue possible claims for compensation. But even in such case, the claims would be prevented by the state immunity of the defendant.
(1) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
(2) Gesetz vom 1. August 1895 über das gerichtliche Verfahren in bürgerlichen Rechtsstreitigkeiten (Act of 1 August 1895, the Austrian Code of Civil Procedure).
(3) Judgment of the Court of Justice of 15 November 2018, Hellenische Republik v Leo Kuhn, C-308/17, ECLI:EU:C:2018:911.