Summary
The applicant applied for a declaration of enforceability of a judgment issued by a German court in 2011. The judgment was declared enforceable by the court of first instance on 2 March 2012. The defendant, from Poland, appealed against the recognition of the judgment and claimed that the Polish court should have refused to declare the judgment enforceable on the grounds specified in Art. 34 point 2 of the Brussels I Regulation. The court of second instance stated that Art. 34 point 2 was not applicable in this case. The court stated, however, that the first-instance judgment shall be revised. According to Art. 34 par. 1 of the Brussels I Regulation, a judgment given in a Member State, which is enforceable in that State - shall be enforced in another Member State - when it has been declared enforceable there. The court of second instance emphasised that the facts of the case show that the German judgment is not enforceable in Germany, due to the fact that the enforceability of the judgment was conditional. Consequently, since the German judgment is not enforceable in Germany, Art. 38 par. 1 shall not be applicable and the judgment given in Germany cannot be declared enforceable in Poland.