Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments — Special jurisdiction — Court for the place of performance of the contractual obligation — Contract of employment — Place where the employee habitually carries out his work — Determination — Employee having successively concluded two contracts with two different employers, the first contract being suspended during the performance of the second — Dispute between the employee and the first employer — (Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968, Article 5(1), as amended by the Accession Conventions of 1978, 1982 and 1989)

Summary

Article 5(1) of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, as amended by the Convention of 9 October 1978 on the Accession of the Kingdom of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, by the Convention of 25 October 1982 on the Accession of the Hellenic Republic and by the Convention of 26 May 1989 on the Accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic, must be interpreted as meaning that, in a dispute between an employee and a first employer, the place where the employee performs his obligations to a second employer can be regarded as the place where he habitually carries out his work when the first employer, with respect to whom the employee ' s contractual obligations are suspended, has, at the time of the conclusion of the second contract of employment, an interest in the performance of the service by the employee to the second employer. The existence of such an interest must be determined on a comprehensive basis, taking into consideration all the circumstances of the case.

When such an interest is lacking on the part of the first employer, Article 5(1) of the Brussels Convention must be interpreted as meaning that the place where the employee carries out his work is the only place of performance of an obligation which can be taken into consideration in order to determine which court has jurisdiction.

see paras 26, 28, 30, operative part 1-2