Eftalia Dafeki v Landesversicherungsanstalt Württemberg.
Date: 1997-12-02
5 In German law, Paragraph 66 of the Personenstandsgesetz (Law on Civil Status) (`PStG') provides that documents relative to civil status have the same probative value as registers of civil status; according to Paragraph 60(1) of the PStG, provided that they are properly maintained, those registers constitute in principle proof of marriages, births and the particulars entered in relation to those events.  Evidence of their inaccuracy may however be adduced. According to the case-law of the Bundessozialgericht (Federal Social Court) and academic legal writing, Paragraph 66 of the PStG applies only to German and not to foreign documents, including those relating to subsequent rectifications.  It follows that where certificates have been drawn up in another country, they do not benefit from the presumption of accuracy, so that the court seised of the matter proceeds to an evaluation of the documents before it in accordance with the rule of free assessment of evidence.  In so doing, the court must take account in particular of a rule of case-law which establishes a presumption that, in the event of inconsistency between several documents of differing dates, the document which prevails is generally, in the absence of other sufficient evidence, the one closest in time to the event, and hence, in this case, the first extract from the register of births.
12 It is clear from the provisions of German law, as set out by the national court, that the probative value accorded by those provisions to certificates of civil status issued by the competent authorities of another Member State is lower than that accorded to certificates drawn up by the German authorities.
16 Account must be taken, first, of the considerable differences that exist between the national legal orders as regards the conditions and procedures for rectification of a date of birth and, second, of the fact that, for the time being, the Member States have neither harmonized the matter nor established a system of mutual recognition of such decisions, as has been done for judgments falling within the scope of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (OJ 1972 L 299, p. 32).
17 The possibility of successfully challenging the accuracy of a certificate of civil status, such as that in issue in the main proceedings, depends to a large extent on the procedure followed and on the conditions which have to be satisfied in order for such a birth certificate to be altered.  These may vary considerably from one Member State to another.
18 Consequently, the administrative and judicial authorities of a Member State are not required under Community law to treat as equivalent subsequent rectifications of certificates of civil status made by the competent authorities of their own State and those made by the competent authorities of another Member State.
19 Nevertheless, exercise of the rights arising from freedom of movement for workers is not possible without production of documents relative to personal status, which are generally issued by the worker's State of origin.  It follows that the administrative and judicial authorities of a Member State must accept certificates and analogous documents relative to personal status issued by the competent authorities of the other Member States, unless their accuracy is seriously undermined by concrete evidence relating to the individual case in question.
20 In those circumstances, a rule of national law which establishes a general and abstract presumption that, in the event of inconsistency between several documents of differing dates, it is the document closest in time to the event to be proved which prevails in the absence of other sufficient evidence, cannot justify refusal to take account of a rectification made by a court in another Member State.
21 The answer to be given to the question put to the Court must therefore be that, in proceedings for determining the entitlements to social security benefits of a migrant worker who is a Community national, the competent social security institutions and the courts of a Member State must accept certificates and analogous documents relative to personal status issued by the competent authorities of the other Member States, unless their accuracy is seriously undermined by concrete evidence relating to the individual case in question.