Case C-643/24, Manuel Costa Filhos: Request for a preliminary ruling from the Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Portugal) lodged on 30 September 2024 – Manuel Costa Filhos, Lda. v Oü Wine Port of Paldiski
Date: 2024-09-30
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: claim, correspondence, enforcement of ruling, form, right to justice, rights of the defence








C_202500145EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/145


13.1.2025






Request for a preliminary ruling from the Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Portugal) lodged on 30 September 2024 – Manuel Costa Filhos, Lda. v Oü Wine Port of Paldiski


(Case C-643/24, Manuel Costa Filhos)

(C/2025/145)
Language of the case: Portuguese

Referring court

Supremo Tribunal de Justiça

Parties to the main proceedings


Appellant: Manuel Costa & Filhos, Lda.

Respondent: Oü Wine Port of Paldiski

Questions referred







1.


In the event that, from a procedural perspective, the failure to send the standard form set out in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 139[3]/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November [2007] (1) cannot be rectified, on account of the declaratory proceedings having already given rise to a final judgment ordering payment, does Article 8(1) of that regulation, taking into account the right to a defence of the addressee of that document in accordance with the requirements of a fair trial, enshrined in the second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in Article 6(1) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, signed in Rome on 4 November 1950, preclude national legislation which considers service effected by registered letter with an acknowledgement of receipt to be invalid when it was not accompanied by the standard form set out in Annex II to that regulation?










2.


Must Article 20(1) of Regulation (EC) No 805/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004, (2) which provides that ‘a judgment certified as a European Enforcement Order shall be enforced under the same conditions as a judgment handed down in the Member State of enforcement’, be interpreted as meaning that the judgment debtor may oppose enforcement based on a European Enforcement Order relying on the same grounds on which he or she could rely in the case of enforcement based on a judgment handed down in the Member State of enforcement, in particular on the ground that he or she did not participate in the declaratory proceedings and that the service, effected by registered letter with an acknowledgement of receipt, was invalid because it was not accompanied by the standard form set out in Annex II to Regulation No 139[3]/2007?










3.


In view of the objectives which led to the creation of the European Enforcement Order (Article 1 of Regulation No 805/2004) and of the minimum requirements for the service of documents applicable to the proceedings in which the judgment certified as a European Enforcement Order was handed down (Articles 13 and 14 of that regulation), which, according to recital 14 of that regulation, are characterised by either full certainty (Article 13) or a very high degree of likelihood (Article 14) that the document served had reached its addressee, does Regulation No 805/2004 preclude national legislation, such as that contained in Article 729(d), read in conjunction with Article 696(e)(i), of the [CPC (3)], according to which the judgment debtor may oppose the enforcement on the ground that he or she did not participate in the declaratory proceedings and that the service, effected by registered letter with an acknowledgement of receipt, was invalid because it was not accompanied by the standard form set out in Annex II to Regulation No 139[3]/2007?






(1)  Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (service of documents), and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1348/2000, (OJ 2007 L 324, p. 79–120).

(2)  Regulation (EC) No 805/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 creating a European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims (OJ 2004 L 143, p. 15–39).

(3)  Código de Processo Civil (Code of Civil Procedure) - CPC, Lei n.o 41/2013 (Law No 41/2013), Diário da República No 121/2013, Series I of 26 June 2013.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/145/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)