Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Appeals - Pleas in law - Erroneous assessment of the facts - Inadmissibility

(EC Treaty, Art. 168a; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51, first para.)

2 Appeals - Pleas in law - Plea directed against a ground of the judgment not necessary to support the operative part - Plea inoperative

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51, first para.)

3 Appeals - Pleas in law - Erroneous assessment of items of evidence adduced in the proper manner - Inadmissibility - Dismissal

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51, first para.)

4 Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Damage - Causal link - Burden of proof

(EC Treaty, Arts 178 and 215)

Summary

5 In accordance with Article 168a of the Treaty and Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, an appeal may rely only on grounds relating to the infringement of rules of law, to the exclusion of any appraisal of the facts.

6 On an appeal, a plea directed against reasoning in a judgment of the Court of First Instance which was not necessary to the result of the case, where the operative part of that judgment is adequately supported on other legal grounds, must be dismissed.

7 It is for the Court of First Instance alone to assess the value which should be attached to the items of evidence adduced before it. That appraisal does not, therefore, save where the sense of the evidence has been distorted, constitute a point of law which is subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice.

8 It is first and foremost for the party seeking to establish the Community's liability to adduce conclusive proof as to the existence or extent of the damage he alleges and to establish the causal link between that damage and the conduct complained of on the part of the Community institutions.