Where To Sue Multiple International Defendants
Freeport plc v Arnoldsson (Case C-98/06)
ECJ
11 October 2007
Weekly Law Notes Summary
The fact that claims brought against a number of defendants had different legal bases did not preclude application of the provision in art 6(1) of Regulation 44/2001 (the successor to the Brussels Convention of 1968) that in certain circumstances multiple defendants could be sued in the courts of the domicile of any of them.
The Third Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Communities so ruled, inter alia, on a reference for a preliminary ruling by the Högsta domstolen, Sweden.
Art 6 provides: “A person domiciled in a member state may also be sued: (1) where he is one of a number of defendants, in the courts for the place where any one of them is domiciled, provided the claims are so closely connected that it is expedient to hear and determine them together to avoid the risk of irreconcilable judgments resulting from separate proceedings; (2) … as a third party in … third party proceedings, in the court seised of the original proceedings, unless these were instituted solely with the object of removing him from the jurisdiction of the court which would be competent in his case.”