PIL instrument(s)

Case number and/or case name

LG Hamburg, 13/3/2008 – 413 O 92/06

Details of the court

Germany, First Instance

Articles referred to by the court

Date of the judgement

12 March 2008

Appeal history

CJEU's case law cited by the court

Summary

The plaintiff is a shipping company. The defendant is a logistics company. The parties argued on the defendant’s obligation to pay damages and the international jurisdiction of German courts. They concluded a contract of carriage (Liner Booking Note) which contained an agreement on the place of jurisdiction. After the proceedings were instituted before the Regional Court Hamburg another proceeding was initiated before the commercial court in Nantes (France). The court held that the exclusion established by Art. 27, 30 Brussels I didn’t apply to the case where a later initiated action for performance also concerned a negative declaration because it was relevant whether the substance of both actions was the same. Further, it stated that the agreement on the place of jurisdiction between the charterer and the carrier and its recording in the ‘Booking Note’ or bill of lading was a widely known usage within the meaning of Art. 23 (1) sentence 3 (c) Brussels I. It is settled case law that the term ‘the same cause of action’ in Art. 27 Brussels I has to be understood as meaning the identical substantive core of two actions. In international maritime law forum clauses are rated as customary in these kinds of commercial relations as they were given between the parties. The judgment is correct.