By means of two (innovative) decisions of the Court and Court of Appeal both of Florence, upon a party’s initiative, the judges declared not to hold jurisdiction, thanks to the power they were vested with pursuant to article 6(a) of (EU) Regulation No. 650/2012, so to make the parties refer the case to the foreign judge.
The lawsuit concerned the request to suspend and revoke the appointment of a foreign executor of the will of a deceased person, assisted by DFA Law Firm, brought by his heirs. The deceased, a Dutch citizen, resided in Italy at the time of his death and had expressly indicated in his will the Dutch Law as governing law of his succession, according to the power set out by article 22 of (EU) Regulation No. 650/2012.
The Italian Courts, seised by the heirs by will as judge having jurisdiction for the place of the last habitual residence of the deceased, upheld the request of the defendant and made recourse to the power accorded by article 6(a) of (EU) Regulation No. 650/2012, declining its jurisdiction in favour of the Dutch Courts by reason of the extreme complex nature of the disputed case.
In addition to confirm the discretionary nature of the power accorded to the judge seised under article 6(a) of (EU) Regulation No. 650/2012 as against the choice of a foreign law as the succession governing law, the decisions in question accepted the theory put forward by our Law Firm according to which said power can be exercised as a consequence of an assessment of a number of practical circumstances that may also be other than those succinctly listed in the short provisions of article 6 of (EU) Regulation No. 650/2012, which must therefore be deemed as mere non-exhaustive examples.