The claimant’s claim had been presented to the Supreme Administrative Court in Austria, who had referred a question to the ECJ. Following the Schoning decision, the court withdrew the referral, and dismissed the claim. He now claimed damages from the state for the wrongful dismissal of his claim by the court.
Held: It was for member states not to infringe European law. The state, including the mechanisms for implementing the law is to be seen as one entity. Where the state could be liable for failing properly to implement European law, so too could the courts of that country. Three conditions for entitlement existed: a private right had to have been infringed, it had to be sufficiently serious, and there must be a direct causal link betrween the breach and the loss.
ECJ Reference for a preliminary ruling: Landesgericht fur Zivilrechtssachen Wien – Austria. Equal treatment – Remuneration of university professors – Indirect discrimination – Length-of-service increment – Liability of a Member State for damage caused to individuals by infringements of Community law for which it is responsible – Infringements attributable to a national court.
Times 03-Oct-2003, C-224/01, [2003] EUECJ C-224/01, [2004] QB 848, [2003] ECR I-10239, [2004] All ER (EC) 23, [2004] 2 WLR 976, [2003] 3 CMLR 28, ECLI:EU:C:2003:513
Bailii
EC Treaty 48
European
Citing:
Cited – Schoning-Kougebetopoulou v Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Judgment) ECJ 15-Jan-1998
ECJ Freedom of movement for persons – Workers – Equal treatment – Promotion on grounds of seniority – Collective agreement applicable to public sector employees taking into account only periods of employment . .
Cited – Brasserie du Pecheur v Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Regina v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame and others (4) ECJ 5-Mar-1996
Member states may be liable to individuals for their failure to implement EU laws. The right of individuals to rely on directly applicable provisions of the EC Treaty before national courts is not sufficient in itself to ensure full and complete . .
Cited by:
Cited – Autologic Holdings Plc and others v Commissioners of Inland Revenue HL 28-Jul-2005
Taxpayer companies challenged the way that the revenue restricted claims for group Corporation Tax relief for subsidiary companies in Europe. The issue was awaiting a decision of the European Court. The Revenue said that the claims now being made by . .
Cited – Miller and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Exiting The European Union SC 24-Jan-2017
Parliament’s Approval if statute rights affected
In a referendum, the people had voted to leave the European Union. That would require a notice to the Union under Article 50 TEU. The Secretary of State appealed against an order requiring Parliamentary approval before issuing the notice, he saying . .
Cited – Nuclear Decommissioning Authority v Energysolutions EU Ltd (Now Called ATK Energy EU Ltd) SC 11-Apr-2017
This is an appeal on preliminary points of European Union and domestic law regarding the circumstances in which damages may be recoverable for failure to comply with the requirements of the Public Procurement Directive (Parliament and Council . .
Cited – P v Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis SC 25-Oct-2017
This appeal concerns the directly effective right of police officers under EU law to have the principle of equal treatment applied to them. The question raised is whether the enforcement of that right by means of proceedings in the Employment . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Constitutional
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.186596
