Deposit (Land in Czechoslovakia) Case

• Jurisdiction: Republica Checa
• Docket Number: Case No. 167
• Date: 09 December 1936
• Court: Obsolete Court (Czechoslovakia)

Czechoslovakia, Supreme Court.

Case No. 167

Deposit (Land in Czechoslovakia) Case.

Diplomatic Immunity — Immunity from Civil Jurisdiction — Actions in respect of Land — Recovery of Deposit on Purchase of Land — The Law of Czechoslovakia.

The Facts.—The plaintiff, who intended to buy from X, a Czechoslovak subject, an estate situated in Czechoslovakia, gave X a sum of money as a deposit. X died, and the defendant, the secretary of a foreign embassy in Prague, inherited the estate. The sale did not materialize and the plaintiff brought an action against the secretary of the foreign embassy for the recovery of the deposit. The secretary of the embassy opposed the action and invoked diplomatic privilege.

Held: by the Courts of all three instances, that the action failed for lack of jurisdiction. The Supreme Court said: “The defendant, who enjoys on Czechoslovak territory the privileges of exterritorial persons according to Article 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure,1 has not submitted to the jurisdiction of the Czechoslovak Courts in the case under consideration. The fact that he is sued as the legal successor of a Czechoslovak subject from whom he inherited real property in Czechoslovak territory, is irrelevant for the decision of the question whether the Czechoslovak courts have jurisdiction under Article 9 of the Code.”

¹ Article 9 provided as follows: “The question as to how far the jurisdiction of...