Opinion of Mr Advocate General Lenz delivered on 13 December 1989

1 Original language. German.

2 OJ 1972, L 299, p 32.

3 See judgment of 15 November 1983 in Case 228/82 Ferdinand M. J. J. Duijnstee v Lodewijk Goderbauer [1983] ECR 3663, at p. 3674 et seq.

4 Report on the Convention on the association of the Kingdom of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Convention on jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments on civil and commercial matters and to the protocol on its interpretation by the Court of Justice (OJ 1979, C 59, p. 71, at p. 111).

5 The concept of guarantee is covered by the concept of third-party proceedings (see the Jenard Report on the Convention on jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, OJ 1979, C 59, p. 1.at p. 28).

6 See judgments of 7 June 1984 in Case 129/83 Siegfried Zeiger v Sebastiano Salinitri [1984] ECR 2397, at p. 2408, of 2 July 1985 in Case 148/84 Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank v Brasserie du Pêcheur SA [1985] ECR 1981, at p. 1992, and of 4 February 1988 in Case 145/86 Horst Ludwig Martin Hoffmann v Adelheid Krieg [1988] ECR 645, at p. 670.

7 A similar view was put forward by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany in the introduction to its observations, where it stated that if a court had jurisdiction under Articie 6(2) of the Convention it was bound to admit an action on a warranty or guarantee provided moreover that the requirements of national procedural law are satisfied. From this observation, however, the German Government merely concluded that the Convention did not affect national rules on the application of the procedure against a third party, it considered, however, that it was a separate question whether an action on a warranty or a guarantee should be admitted where international jurisdiction existed under the Convention. The government nevertheless then answered this question in the affirmative.

8 See the judgment of 4 February 1988 in Case 145/86 Hoffmann v Krieg, cited above.

9 See the judgment of 15 November 1983 in Case 288/82 Duijnstee v Goderbauer, cited above.