Bundesgerichtshof; 2015-10-16; V ZR 120/14
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:DE:BGH:2015:161015UVZR120.14.0
Date: 2015-10-16
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Germany

82015DE1016(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
A natural person resident in Germany (the "plaintiff") bought a property in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) from defendants resident in Denmark (the "defendants"). A third party had rights to the acquired property, which were established by an administrative court procedure regarding the building extension of which the defendants had known. The plaintiff sued the defendants for fraudulent deception and demanded compensation for expenses and disadvantages incurred by him as a result of the building extension.
The Court of First Instance (Landgericht Kiel) rejected the lawsuit for international incompetence.
The Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht Schleswig) has rejected the plaintiff's appeal on the grounds that the only eligible jurisdiction in Germany, the place of performance under Article 5(1) of the Brussels I Regulation (¹), was not entitled.
The Bundesgerichtshof (the "BGH") corrected the lower courts’ opinions. The German courts are internationally competent for the made claim for damages due to material defects and the jurisdiction of the place of performance according to Article 5(1)(a) of the Brussels I Regulation.
With the claims for a violation of the pre-contractual information obligation, the place depends on where the primary duty from the contract is to be fulfilled, in this case, where the damaging event occurred or may occur. According to the case law, this place is the place where the harm occurred or the place where the harm arose. Both places are located in Germany.
The BGH annulled the decision of the Court of Appeal and ordered the matter to be renegotiated in the Court of First Instance.
(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, valid until 09.01.2015