Case C‑340/16

Landeskrankenanstalten-Betriebsgesellschaft — KABEG

v

Mutuelles du Mans assurances — MMA IARD SA

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberster Gerichtshof)

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Judicial cooperation in civil matters — Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 — Article 9(1) — Article 11(2) — Jurisdiction in matters relating to insurance — Direct action by the injured party against the insurer — Action brought by the employer, a public-law institution, statutory assignee of the rights of its employee, against the insurer of the vehicle involved — Subrogation)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 20 July 2017

1. Judicial cooperation in civil matters—Jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters—Regulation No 44/2001—Jurisdiction in matters relating to insurance—Objectives—Protection of the weaker party—Concept of the weaker party—Concept having wider acceptance in matters relating to insurance than those relating to consumer contracts or individual employment contracts

   (Council Regulation No 44/2001, Chapter II, Section 3)

2. Judicial cooperation in civil matters—Jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters—Regulation No 44/2001—Jurisdiction in matters relating to insurance—Action brought against the insurer—Direct action by the injured party—Concept of the injured party—Employer which continued to pay the salary of its employee absent from work following a road accident, to which have been passed the employee’s rights vis-à-vis the company insuring the civil liability of the vehicle involved in that accident—Included—Employer able to sue, before the courts of the Member States in which it is established, that insurance company which is established in another Member State

   (Council Regulation No 44/2001, Arts 9(1)(b) and 11(2))

1.  See the text of the decision.

   (see paras 28, 32, 36)

2.  Article 9(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, read together with Article 11(2) thereof, must be interpreted as meaning that an employer, established in one Member State, which continued to pay the salary of its employee absent as the result of a road traffic accident and to which have passed the employee’s rights with regard to the company insuring the civil liability resulting from the vehicle involved in that accident, which is established in a second Member State, may, in the capacity of ‘injured party’, within the meaning of Article 11(2), sue the insurance company before the courts of the first Member State, where a direct action is permitted.

   (see para. 39, operative part)