High Court Finds Exclusive Jurisdiction Provisions In Recast Brussels Regulation Only Apply To EU Domiciled Defendants

The High Court has held that article 24(5) of the recast Brussels Regulation, which gives exclusive jurisdiction to the court where a judgment is to be enforced, does not apply where a defendant is domiciled outside of the EU: Integral Petroleum SA v Petrogat FZE [2018] EWHC 2686.

The court considered itself bound to follow the decision in Choudhary v Bhattar [2009] EWCA 1176, a Court of Appeal decision on article 22 of the Brussels I Regulation, the predecessor to article 24(5). Choudhary has been subject to much criticism in subsequent case law, and the wording of the article has since changed. The court considered, however, that the criticisms were obiter and the reasons for the change in the wording of article 24 were not sufficiently clear for the decision to be distinguished.

The present decision is also of interest in calling, once again, for the Civil Procedure Rules Committee to extend the common law gateways for service outside of the jurisdiction to apply to enforcement of orders (not only judgments), so as to encompass committal applications.

Background

The claimant applied to commit a number of individuals for alleged breaches of court orders relating to delivery of a cargo of fuel oil. The orders were directed at two companies and the individuals were alleged to be owners, principals or directors of the companies.

The issues before the court were whether the court had jurisdiction in respect of the committal applications under article 24(5) of the recast Brussels Regulation and, if not, whether the court could grant permission for service out of the jurisdiction under one or other of two common law gateways set out at CPR PD6B 3.1: gateway (3) (necessary or proper party) or gateway (10) (enforcement of judgments).

Decision

Jurisdiction under article 24(5)

Article 24(5) of the recast Brussels Regulation provides that, in proceedings concerned with enforcement of judgments (which, for these purposes, expressly includes an order of a court or tribunal), the court of the Member State where the judgment is to be enforced "shall have exclusive jurisdiction regardless of the domicile of the parties". The predecessor to article 24(5), article 22 of the Brussels I Regulation, was in slightly different terms, providing that the court of the Member State where the judgment is to be enforced "shall have exclusive jurisdiction regardless of domicile."

The judge (Mrs Justice Moulder) held that article 24(5) only applies where a defendant is...