Summary
Pursuant to Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001, only the service or lodging of a document which is, per se, able to start the proceedings aimed at the issuance of an enforceable decision is relevant for the purposes of determining the court first seised. With respect to the proceedings for detailed assessment of costs provided for under English law, said document is only the ‘‘notice of commencement’’, pursuant to which a party summons the other party that lacking any objection the court will issue the requested enforceable order and not the ‘‘bill of costs’’, which is a mere note of costs that the party sends to the other to notify the amount that it deems fair in order to reach an agreement, even if the attempt to reach agreement with these modalities is expressly contemplated by English law. Pursuant to Article 33 of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001, an order to pay costs for an indeterminate amount, which has been issued at the end of English proceedings, is automatically recognised in any Member State in which it is invoked, without any special procedure being required. Pursuant to Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001, an action for detailed assessment of costs relating to the aforesaid proceedings, which has been brought against a defendant domiciled in Italy, is admissible and subject to the jurisdiction of Italian courts. In fact, on the one hand, the foreclosure provided for by Article 91 of the Code of Civil Procedure does not apply with respect to foreign proceedings at the end of which an order to pay costs for an indeterminate amount has been issued in accordance with the procedural rules of the relevant foreign legal system, and, on the other hand, the principle whereby the procedure for detailed assessment of costs before the cost judge – which is provided for by English law – constitutes the sole procedure for the determination of said costs applies only within the English legal system.