IC2BE AG Fürstenfeldbruck, 14.10.2009

Summary

The creditor pursues the foreclosure against the debtor on the basis of a claim, which was declared enforceable in Italy. For that purpose, the creditor sent a copy of the judgment of the Tribunale di Treviso to the bailiff in Fürstenfeldbruck, translated into German language, and a copy of the Italian language certification of the abovementioned judgment as a European Enforcement Order. By letter to the AG Fürstenfeldbruck, the debtor requested that the foreclosure ceased to be enforced, since its conditions were not met. The formal requirements for the execution of the foreclosure existed in the present case, since the creditor exhibited the deed and the certificate in writing to the executing authorities in accordance with Art. 20(2) EEO, which fulfilled the conditions necessary for its cogency of proof. In addition, the creditor should provide 'if appropriate' a translation of the certificate into the official language or any other language approved by the Member State of enforcement. Such a translation was missing here. The legal intent of § 1083 ZPO, which applied to the enforcement of foreign titles in Germany, interpreted the term "if necessary" in Art. 20(2) lit. c EEO in the way that a translation should always be provided if not all the required information could be provided by inserting names and numbers or ticking boxes, but additional individual information was required. This view is shared by the court, since it was not clear what should be meaningfully translated in the case of a simply completed form without further additions. Moreover, the debtors were Italian nationals and therefore masters of the Italian language. Only the submission of the original title and the certificate of the court of origin about its enforceability should, according to the will of Art. 20 EEO, trigger the initiation of the foreclosure. Neither the ZPO, nor the EEO provided proof of the service of the certificate to the debtor as a condition for enforcement.