JURE summary

JURE summary

The Borgarting lagmannsrett (hereinafter ‘the Court of Appeal’) concluded that the place of performance of an obligation was in Norway in accordance with Article 5(1)(a) of the new Lugano Convention (¹), according to which ‘a person domiciled in a State bound by this Convention may, in another State bound by this Convention, be sued, in matters relating to a contract, in the courts for the place of performance of the obligation in question’. Therefore, the jurisdiction of the Norwegian courts over the dispute was confirmed. This ruling was appealed to the Norges Høyesterett (hereinafter ‘the Supreme Court’).

The Norges Høyesteretts ankeutvalg (hereinafter ‘the Appeals Committee of the Supreme Court’) noted that the Court of Appeal had correctly assumed that the jurisdiction is derived from the place of fulfilment of the ‘primary obligation’. The Court of Appeal added that for an assessment of the case it is the place of fulfilment of the obligation arising from the contract which is decisive, and not, for example, the place of fulfilment of a derived claim. In the view of the Appeals Committee of the Supreme Court, this was the correct understanding and application of Article 5(1)(a) of the new Lugano Convention.

The appeal was refused for submission to the Supreme Court.

(¹) Convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.