PIL instrument(s)

Case number and/or case name

Castel Engineering SA v. Du Pont de Nemours SPRL - Trib. Tournai, 18 November 2009

Details of the court

Belgium, First Instance

Articles referred to by the court

Date of the judgement

17 November 2009

Appeal history

CJEU's case law cited by the court

Summary

The claim is an appeal against the declaration of enforceability delivered by decision of the Court of First Instance of Tournai on 28 January 2009, of the decision of the Court of Appeal of Douai (France) of 14 February 2007, in the case of the corporations Castel Engineering and Dupont de Nemours Belgium (appeallant and defendant parties); the other parties in the case are the corporations AGF Belgium Insurance (appellant and defendant party), Cerestar France, Eurisol and Gan Assurances IARD (defendants). The court with which an appeal is lodged under Art. 43 shall refuse or revoke a declaration of enforceability only on one of the grounds specified in Articles 34 and 35 (cf. Art. 45(1) Brussels I Regulation). The claimant argues – in vain – that the declaration of enforceability is contrary to public policy. The public policy in question is Belgian international public policy, as opposed to Belgian internal public policy. The claimant avers that the original decision of the French court overlooks a provision of the French Insurance Code which is part of French internal public policy. This has nothing to do with Belgian international public policy. Moreover, under no circumstances may a foreign judgment be reviewed as to its substance (cf. Art. 45(2) Brussels I Regulation).