Case number and/or case name
SARL A. v. NV T. - Gent, 9 April 2008
Details of the court
Belgium, Second Instance
Articles referred to by the court
Brussels I
Article 5
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph a
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph b
Indent 1
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph b
Indent 2
Article 23
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph a
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph b
Paragraph 1
SubParagraph c
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 5
Date of the judgement
08 April 2008
CJEU's case law cited by the court
Summary
In first instance, NV T. sued SARL A. in payment of 134,246.17 EUR plus interests and legal fees for unpaid invoices for accessories and undercarriages for trailers. In the course of the proceedings, NV T. raised its claim by 100,000 EUR in damages for reckless and vexatious legal proceedings. The first judge withheld its jurisdiction on the basis of Art. 5(1)(b) and 29 and 30 Brussels I Regulation. The judge disregarded the choice of court clause on the back of the invoices, since it was drawn up in Dutch while it appears from the other documents submitted to the court that the negotiations and correspondence between the parties always took place in German and French.
The appellant still contests the international jurisdiction of the Belgian courts.
The Court of Appeal fully agrees with the motivation of the first judge.
SHORT CRITIQUE
We do not have a lot of information on the details of the case and on the application of Arts. 5(1) and 29/30 Brussels I. The case does provide an interesting interpretation of Art. 23: the Belgian courts tend to examine the language of a choice of court clause to make sure that the recipient understood it. See report for more information and other examples of case law.