The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Bushell Interiors Ltd, leaving in place a High Court decision that Irish courts had no jurisdiction over its damages claim against German kitchen manufacturer Leicht Küchen AG. The court said the claim fell within a clause giving the courts of Schwäbisch Gmünd exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising from the companies’ business relations.
Bushell, an Irish company that sells and supplies kitchens, contended that it was appointed a dealer and distributor in 2008, initially for Dublin and the eastern region and later throughout Ireland. It said it had been designated a Leicht Küchen master dealer. Its proceedings sought damages for alleged breach of contract and interference with its economic interests, including a claim under the Commercial Agents Regulations. The judgment records those as Bushell’s claims; it does not determine their merits.
Leicht Küchen argued that the Irish courts lacked jurisdiction under Clause 14 of its “General Terms of Sale, Delivery and Payment”. The clause provided for exclusive jurisdiction in Schwäbisch Gmünd for “all disputes arising from business relations, directly or indirectly”. Bushell argued that it covered sales and delivery disputes, but not claims arising from the alleged agency or distributorship relationship.
The High Court had found the clause binding and broad enough to cover the parties’ business relations. On appeal, the Court of Appeal considered the clause alongside earlier Irish decisions requiring jurisdiction clauses to be strictly construed. It distinguished a Supreme Court case involving a clause that did not refer to distribution, and another in which the clause covered disputes arising out of a contract. The court said the wording here was broader and that the distributorship claim, if based on a contract, concerned the parties’ business relations.
The Court of Appeal also distinguished a Dutch Supreme Court decision involving separate written contracts for sales and a sales concession. In this case, it said, Bushell could point to only one written agreement containing the broad jurisdiction clause.
The court concluded that Clause 14 applied to contractual disputes between the parties “whatever their nature”. It held that the courts of Schwäbisch Gmünd had jurisdiction to hear the distributorship damages claim and dismissed the appeal. The ruling addressed jurisdiction; it did not decide whether Bushell was a distributor or whether Leicht Küchen was liable for damages.