Case number and/or case name
V. v. SPRL Seeworld, P&V Assurances and AXA Belgium - Civ. Bruxelles, 17 June 2014
Details of the court
Belgium, First Instance
Articles referred to by the court
Brussels I
Article 22
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 5
Article 26
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 4
Date of the judgement
16 June 2014
CJEU's case law cited by the court
Summary
The case is concerned with a traffic accident because of which the child of the claimant passed away. The traffic accident took place in Great Britain in 2002. One of the vehicles involved in the accident was registered in the UK.
The Court of First Instance notes that the parties do not contest the international jurisdiction. The third defendant, insurer AXA Belgium, fails to enter an appearance. Since AXA Belgium is domiciled in Belgium, and the matter does not fall within the scope of any of the exclusive jurisdictional grounds (cf. Art. 22 Brussels I), the Court accepts its jurisdiction (cf. Art. 26 Brussels I).
Short critique
This is a straightforward and correct application of the Brussels I Regulation on the basis of Art. 2 Brussels I (the Court of Appeal actually doesn’t refer to Art. 2, only to Arts. 22 and 26). It is commendable that the Court examines its jurisdiction as regards the third defendant who failed to enter an appearance, even when the other parties did not raise any objections.