Decision on International Jurisdiction to Order a Debtor's Instruction under Art. 291 CC

Facts

[A.] and [C.] , the children of [D.] and [B.] , live in Germany. [D.] resides in Switzerland. The District Court of Ravensburg (Germany) had ordered [D.] to pay maintenance contributions for the children. As [D.] failed to fulfill his obligations, [B.] applied to the District Court of Lucerne-Land to instruct [D.] 's respective employer to deduct the maintenance amount from the salary payment and transfer it to [B.] (debtor's instruction under Art. 291 CC). The District Court of Lucerne-Land did not consider the request due to lack of local jurisdiction. [B.] unsuccessfully appealed to the High Court of the Canton of Lucerne.

[A.] and [C.] , represented by their mother [B.] , filed a complaint with the Federal Supreme Court. They requested that the jurisdiction of the District Court of Kriens be established for their request for a debtor's instruction and that the matter be remanded to the District Court of Kriens for a decision on the merits.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court concluded that the debtor's instruction under Art. 291 CC is not a measure for the protection of the property of the minor within the meaning of the Hague Convention on the Protection of Minors, but a privileged enforcement measure sui generis. Therefore, this Convention does not apply in the present case.

Instead, the Lugano Convention (in the version valid until 31.12.2010) is applicable.…