Succession in Obligations (Advance Payment of Duty) Case

• Jurisdiction: Republica Checa
• Date: 23 November 1928
• Docket Number: Case No. 58
• Court: Obsolete Court (Czechoslovakia)

Supreme Administrative Court of Czechoslovakia.

Case No. 58

Succession in Obligations (Advance Payment of Duty) Case.

State Succession Succession in Obligations Money Paid to Former State for Duty not yet Payable.

The Facts.The plaintiff paid to the authorities of the former Hungarian State a sum of money on account of duty for spirit which he intended to buy, but subsequently did not buy. He demanded reimbursement of this sum from the Czechoslovak authorities, but his demand was dismissed having regard to the Czechoslovak Law of 23 June, 1926, No. 156 (see Note below). The plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, contending that in consequence of the continuity of the legal system before and after the revolution, proclaimed by the Law of 28 October, 1918, No. 11, he was entitled to recover.

Held, against the plaintiff: It is true that the Law No. 11 (1918) proclaimed the principle of the continuity of the legal system before and after the revolution by leaving in force all legal provisions from the time before 28 October, 1918,1 so far as those provisions could be brought into accord with the new legal system arisen from the revolution, particularly as far as they could be brought into accord with the sovereignty of the Czechoslovak Republic. It could be, therefore, correctly maintained that the Czechoslovak State by virtue of its sovereignty is entitled to collect, in accordance with the legal provisions maintained in force, all rates and taxes, fees and duties not yet paid, but that, on the other

hand, it is a consequence of that sovereignty that the Czechoslovak State is also responsible to the taxpayers for claims which had accrued to them, though in the period prior to the revolution, in accordance with the legal provisions regulating the tax or duty concerned. This state of law was, however, substantially altered...