Dumez France SA and Tracoba SARL v Hessische Landesbank and others.
Date: 1990-01-11
10 It must then be pointed out that, in its judgment in Mines de potasse d' Alsace, cited above, the Court ruled that where the place of the happening of the event which may give rise to liability in tort, delict or quasi-delict and the place where that event results in damage are not identical, the expression "place where the harmful event occurred" which appears in Article 5(3 ) of the Convention must be understood as being intended to cover both the place where the damage occurred and the place of the event giving rise to the damage, with the result that the defendant may be sued, at the option of the plaintiff, either in the courts for the place where the damage occurred or in the courts for the place of the event which gives rise to and is at the origin of that damage .
14 It follows that, in a case such as this, the damage alleged is no more than the indirect consequence of the harm initially suffered by other legal persons who were the direct victims of damage which occurred at a place different from that where the indirect victim subsequently suffered harm .
16 In that connection the Convention, in establishing the system for the attribution of jurisdiction, adopted the general rule that the courts of the defendant' s domicile would have jurisdiction ( Title II, Article 2 ). Moreover, the hostility of the Convention towards the attribution of jurisdiction to the courts of the plaintiff' s domicile was demonstrated by the fact that the second paragraph of Article 3 precluded the application of national provisions attributing jurisdiction to such courts for proceedings against defendants domiciled in the territory of a Contracting State .
17 It is only by way of exception to the general rule whereby jurisdiction is attributed to the courts of the defendant' s domicile that Title II, Section 2, attributes special jurisdiction in certain cases, including the case envisaged by Article 5(3 ) of the Convention . As the Court has already held ( Mines de potasse d' Alsace, paragraphs 10 and 11 ), those cases of special jurisdiction, the choice of which is a matter for the plaintiff, are based on the existence of a particularly close connecting factor between the dispute and courts other than those of the defendant' s domicile, which justifies the attribution of jurisdiction to those courts for reasons relating to the sound administration of justice and the efficacious conduct of proceedings .
18 In order to meet that objective, which is of fundamental importance in a convention which has essentially to promote the recognition and enforcement of judgments in States other than those in which they were delivered, it is necessary to avoid the multiplication of courts of competent jurisdiction which would heighten the risk of irreconcilable decisions, this being the reason for which recognition or an order for enforcement is withheld by virtue of Article 27(3 ) of the Convention .
19 Furthermore, that objective militates against any interpretation of the Convention which, otherwise than in the cases expressly provided for, might lead to recognition of the jurisdiction of the courts of the plaintiff' s domicile and would enable a plaintiff to determine the competent court by his choice of domicile .
22 It must therefore be stated in reply to the question submitted by the national court that the rule on jurisdiction laid down in Article 5(3 ) of the Convention cannot be interpreted as permitting a plaintiff pleading damage which he claims to be the consequence of the harm suffered by other persons who were direct victims of the harmful act to bring proceedings against the perpetrator of that act in the courts of the place in which he himself ascertained the damage to his assets .