CJUE C-558/15, Vieira de Azevedo și alții, hotărârea din 15.12.2016 — text integral

Extrasele exacte din hotărâre la care trimit ghidurile.

1. Punctul 29 până la dispozitiv (text primar consecutiv) · limba originalului: en

   29 While, according to Article 3 of Directive 2000/26, each Member State is to ensure that injured parties, referred to in Article 1 thereof, in accidents, within the meaning of that provision, enjoy a direct right of action against the insurance undertaking covering the responsible party against civil liability, neither that article nor any other provision of that directive entail that, in order to exercise that right, the possibility for those persons to bring proceedings against the claims representative directly before the national court should be recognised. 30 In those circumstances, it is important to bear in mind that Directive 2000/26 is intended to guarantee motor vehicle accident victims comparable treatment irrespective of where in the European Union accidents occur. To that end, those victims must be entitled to submit a claim in their Member State of residence to a claims representative appointed there by the insurance undertaking of the responsible party. That representative’s role is to make the steps to be taken by accident victims easier, in particular to allow them to make a claim in their own language. 31 According to recital 15 in the preamble to Directive 2000/26, Member States must require claims representatives to have sufficient powers to represent the insurance undertaking in relation to victims, and also to represent it before national authorities including, where necessary, before the courts, in so far as this is compatible with the rules of private international law on the conferral of jurisdiction. 32 Thus, in the light of those objectives, the EU legislature has not only instituted a system in which injured parties in each Member State may submit a claim for compensation to the representative of the insurer of the responsible party, in accordance with the procedures with which they are familiar, but logically supplemented that system, as stated in recital 14 of Directive 2000/26, by recognising victims’ direct right of action against that insurer, without being obliged to sue the responsible party. 33 It admittedly follows from those considerations that the Union legislature intended that, without being able to call into question observance of the rules of private international law, representation of insurance undertakings under Article 4(5) of Directive 2000/26 includes the duty to allow injured parties validly to bring proceedings before national courts for compensation for damage. In that context, the claims representative’s sufficient powers must include the authority to accept service of judicial documents (see, to that effect, judgment of 10 October 2013, Spedition Welter, C-306/12, EU:C:2013:650, paragraphs 23 and 24). 34 As already noted by the Court, it is apparent from the drafting history of Directive 2000/26 that the legislature’s intention was that the powers enjoyed by the representative of an insurance undertaking in the victim’s State of residence should include, albeit to a limited extent, acceptance of service of judicial documents, since it was not to affect the rules of private international law relating to the conferral of jurisdiction (see, to that effect, judgment of 10 October 2013, Spedition Welter, C-306/12, EU:C:2013:650, paragraph 22). 35 On the other hand, it is apparent neither from the drafting history nor from the recitals in the preamble to Directive 2000/26 that the intention of the EU legislature was to extend those powers to allow injured parties to bring proceedings against that undertaking’s representative, in order to seek compensation from the insurance undertaking of the responsible party, before the national court of their place of residence. 36 Since injured parties may notify judicial documents to the representative of the insurance undertaking, it does not appear that the objective of Directive 2000/26, whose purpose is to make the steps to be taken by those persons easier, is not therefore achieved and requires proceedings to be able to be brought against the representative itself before the national court. 37 The EU legislature also stated, in recital 13 of the preamble to Directive 2000/26, that the system of having claims representatives in the injured party’s Member State of residence affects neither the substantive law to be applied in each individual case nor the matter of jurisdiction. Accepting that the ECLI:EU:C:2016:957 8 JUDGMENT OF 15. 12. 2016 — CASE C-558/15 VIEIRA DE AZEVEDO AND OTHERS action for damages may be brought directly before the national court against that representative itself and not against the undertaking which it represents could interfere with the jurisdiction of the courts. In any event, recital 16 of the preamble to the directive also states that the activities of claims representatives are not sufficient in order to confer jurisdiction on the courts in the injured party’s Member State of residence if the rules of private international law on the conferral of jurisdiction do not so provide. 38 In those circumstances it does not appear that the objective of improving the legal situation of parties injured as a result of motor vehicle accidents occurring outside their Member State of residence entails that Article 4 of Directive 2000/26, which does not explicitly provide that the claims representative may itself be sued instead of the insurance undertaking it represents, should be interpreted, although those injured parties may bring proceedings directly against such an undertaking before the national court, as implicitly but necessarily requiring Member States to provide for the possibility of that representative being sued. 39 In the light of the foregoing, the answer to the question referred is that Article 4 of Directive 2000/26 must be interpreted as not requiring Member States to provide that the claims representative appointed pursuant to that article may itself be sued, instead of the insurance undertaking which it represents, in the national court before which an action for damages was brought by an injured party falling within the scope of Article 1 of that directive. The second question 40 In the light of the answer to the first question, there is no need to answer the second question. Costs 41 Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the national court, the decision on costs is a matter for that court. Costs incurred in submitting observations to the Court, other than the costs of those parties, are not recoverable. On those grounds, the Court (Sixth Chamber) hereby rules: Article 4 of Directive 2000/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 May 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles and amending Council Directives 73/239/EEC and 88/357/EEC (Fourth motor insurance Directive), as amended by Directive 2005/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005, must be interpreted as not requiring Member States to provide that the claims representative appointed pursuant to that article may itself be sued, instead of the insurance undertaking which it represents, in the national court before which an action for damages was brought by an injured party falling within the scope of Article 1 of Directive 2000/26, as amended by Directive 2005/14. [Signatures] ECLI:EU:C:2016:957 9

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