Gerechtshof Amsterdam; 2015-07-07; Avita Towarzystwo ubezpieczen ogolynch; Metal Workx; 200.160.739/01
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2015:2858
Date: 2015-07-07
Subject matter: Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968
Origin: Netherlands

82015NL0707(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
The claimants (MW, Poland and WVA, the Netherlands) asked Aviva, a Polish insurance company, for compensation for damages suffered as a result of a fire, which destroyed the equipment and machines in a factory in Poland. The insurance company denied that it was obliged to proceed to payment under insurance. MW, WVA sued Aviva to obtain insurance coverage for the damage. The Polish insurer was summoned to the rechtbank (district court) Amsterdam.
Aviva believed it should not have been summoned to the court in Amsterdam, but to a court in Poland instead.
The rechtbank concluded that the Dutch courts have jurisdiction based on Article 6(1) of the Brussels I Regulation (1), according to which, in case of a number of defendants, the jurisdiction of the court for the place where any of them is domiciled should be established.
The insurer appealed. The Gerechtshof (Court of Appeal) noted that Chapter II Section 3 of the Brussels I Regulation provides exhaustive provisions for dealing with jurisdiction in insurance matters. Other sections of the Brussels I Regulation should be applied only if it is expressly stated in Section 3. However, that is not the case regarding Article 6(1) and the application of this Article to insurance matters is excluded.
With the foregoing, the further question was whether the Dutch courts have jurisdiction based on Article 9(1)(b) which allows an insurer to be sued, in the case of actions brought by the policyholder, the insured or a beneficiary, in the courts for the place where the plaintiff is domiciled. Finally, it was held as insufficient to regard one of the plaintiffs (WVA, the Netherlands) as a third-party insurer as it was not proven that MW and WVA intended to ensure ownership interests of WVA via insurance. Therefore, under Article 9, the Dutch courts also have no jurisdiction to hear the dispute.
The Gerechtshof granted the appeal, set aside the judgment of the rechtbank and declared the lack of jurisdiction of Dutch courts in this case.
(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.