OLG Düsseldorf; 2018-10-09; 18 W 15/18
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:DE:OLGD:2018:1009.18W15.18.00
Date: 2018-10-09
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Germany

82018DE1009(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
In its claim, an insurance company based in Germany (hereinafter ‘the plaintiff’) requested compensation for transport damage from a transportation company based in Germany (hereinafter ‘the defendant’).
The defendant was contracted to transport goods; some of the goods were lost on the journey.
The plaintiff is the transport insurer of the A. shipping company, which was originally contracted with the transportation. The A. shipping company is claimed to have contracted company A.B.V. and then finally the defendant with the transportation. The defendant allegedly compensated the A. shipping company.
The Landgericht Kleve (hereinafter ‘the Court of First Instance’) stayed the proceedings for the dispute. The defendant allegedly brought a previous claim before a Dutch court in Gelderland against the A. shipping company, inter alia, and thus also against the plaintiff for a negative declaratory relief and these proceedings are still pending before the Court of Appeal.
The plaintiff’s immediate appeal opposes the order of the Court of First Instance at the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf (hereinafter ‘the Court of Appeal’) but is, however, unfounded.
The proceedings shall be stayed pursuant to Article 30 of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (1). The Court of Appeal as a court other than the first seized was able to stay proceedings until a final decision was made in the Dutch dispute.
The claims are necessarily connected since answering the question of the qualified liability in relation to the transportation damages is the subject of both claims.
The proceedings shall also be stayed in accordance with the more recent case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union because the negative declaratory relief is not overridden by the plaintiff’s claim for performance.
(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.