CARTIER PARFUMS-LUNETTES SAS AND ANOTHER V ZIEGLER FRANCE SA AND OTHERS

[2014] EUECJ Case C-1/13, Court of Justice of the European Union, 27 February 2014

Jurisdiction - Lis pendens - Establishment of jurisdiction of the court first seised - Appearance being entered without objection by the parties - Adoption of a final judgment - Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, article 27(2)

This was a request for a preliminary ruling from the Cour de cassation (France) in proceedings between the parties concerning compensation for damage sustained by Cartier and AXA as a result of the theft of goods during an international transport of goods by road. The claimants were the owners and insurers of a shipment of cosmetic products by road from France to UK. The insurers had paid €145,176.08 to the insured in respect of the loss. The first defendant was the contracting carrier and the other defendants were its string subcontractors. While the driver stopped to rest at a service station in the UK, part of the shipment was stolen. Cartier and AXA sued the defendants before the French court on 24 September 2008, but at a hearing on 28 October 2010 Ziegler raised the defence of lis pendens, having already sued the claimants before the High Court of Justice (England and Wales) on 16 September 2008 to determine liability. The French court referred a question to CJEU essentially on at what point the jurisdiction of the first court is "established", per article 27(2).