Višje sodišče v Ljubljani; 2025-04-18; I Cp 1590/2024
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:SI:VSLJ:2025:I.CP.1590.2024
Date: 2025-04-18
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Slovenia

82025SI0418(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
The dispute between the parties concerns the existence of a non-marital partnership between the plaintiff and the defendant’s deceased father and, consequently, the existence and extent of their joint property (and the shares therein) as well as the existence of the plaintiff’s inheritance rights. The part of the claim seeking the delivery of a holiday home and the issuance of a land-register deed for the registration of co-ownership up to a 50/100 share is based on the property law arrangement between partners in a non-marital partnership (Article 67 in conjunction with Article 4 of the DZ (1)), and, together with the declaratory and constitutive parts of the claim, forms a substantive whole. The part of the claim seeking the transfer of the same property and the issuance of a land-register deed for the registration of co-ownership up to a 25/100 share, however, is based on inheritance law (Article 10 in conjunction with Article 4a and Article 223 of the ZD (2)). Separate proceedings are permissible where individual claims can be dealt with independently under substantive law. The declaratory part of the inheritance action must be regarded as an intermediate declaratory claim, which can be decided only in the same proceedings as the performance claim. The claims are also substantively connected: whether the holiday home forms part of the joint property determines the subject of succession – if it does not form part of the joint property, the entire house will fall within the estate; otherwise, only one half.
Although an inheritance action is indirectly intended to protect ownership rights, it is not an action in rem concerning immovable property. It is therefore not a dispute concerning rights in rem in immovable property, which excludes the application of Article 24 of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (3). Nor does the Brussels I Regulation (recast) apply at all, since, under Article 1(2)(f), it does not cover succession matters. The Succession Regulation (4) applies ‘in matters of succession’ (Article 1(1)), which does not mean that it applies only to succession proceedings or that it merely determines which court has jurisdiction to conduct those proceedings. If interpreted narrowly in that way, the Regulation would unjustifiably exclude situations where succession proceedings have already become final or where a right in respect of an estate is asserted in the absence of any succession proceedings. The Succession Regulation, therefore, also applies to disputes arising from succession relationships. Pursuant to Article 4 thereof, which confers jurisdiction on the courts of the Member State in which the deceased had his or her habitual residence at the time of death, the Slovenian court has jurisdiction in respect of the performance claim under the inheritance action.
Under the family and succession legislation of the Republic of Croatia, which, like the Republic of Slovenia, participates in enhanced cooperation between the Member States of the European Union in matters of matrimonial property regimes (for which Regulation concerning matrimonial property regimes (5) is binding and directly applicable), a non-marital partnership between partners of different sexes produces the same effects as a marriage. The definition of marriage or its equation with a non-marital partnership, as permitted by national substantive law, therefore cannot be regarded as contrary to the general objective of the Regulation to ensure the predictability of jurisdiction rules and the legal certainty that predictability entails. The jurisdiction of the Slovenian court in respect of the claim relating to joint property is based both on the special rule in Article 4 of Regulation concerning matrimonial property regimes, which determines jurisdiction in the event of the death of one of the spouses (attraction of jurisdiction), and on Article 6 thereof, which links jurisdiction to the spouses’ habitual residence (or nationality), whereby the location of the property is irrelevant.
In assessing the conditions for granting a provisional measure – in particular in defining the content of the legal standard of serious and irreparable harm and in balancing the positions of the parties – the Court of First Instance was correct to rely on the need for a restrictive approach.
(1) Družinski zakonik (Family Code).
(2) Zakon o dedovanju (Inheritance Act).
(3) 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 (recast).
(4) Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and acceptance and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of a European Certificate of Succession.
(5) Council Regulation (EU) 2016/1103 of 24 June 2016 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of matrimonial property regimes.