Summary
The request made by a Polish company against an Italian company to declare that Italian courts lack jurisdiction, pursuant to Art. 28 of Regulation (EC) n. 44/2001 of 22 December 2000, over an action for breach of some contracts for sale and supply of goods and for damages arising therefrom together with the restitution of some goods hold for processing must be accepted in order to avoid irreconcilable judgments, as related actions are pending before Italian and Polish courts (the payment of the price of the goods being claimed before the latter and damages arising from defects of the goods before the former – accordingly, both courts are required to assess whether the contract has been fully and precisely performed) and the Polish court has been seised first (for these purposes, reference is to be made, under both Art. 30 of the regulation and the Italian and Polish Code of Civil Procedure, to the time when the document instituting the proceedings is lodge with the court). With regard to the case at issue, then, the “first seised” rule is relevant to both the choice-of-court clause contained in the contracts founding the claim, according to which “if the parties do not reach any agreement, disputes shall be decided by the court having territorial competence over the claimant” and the provision of regulation (EC) No 44/2001 on related proceedings.