Succession in Obligations (Fees Paid in Error) Case

• Jurisdiction: Republica Checa
• Docket Number: Case No. 50
• Date: 09 June 1925
• Court: Obsolete Court (Czechoslovakia)

Supreme Administrative Court of Czechoslovakia.

Case No. 50

Succession in Obligations (Fees Paid in Error) Case.

State Succession Succession in Obligations Money Paid to Former State in Error Treaty of Trianon Articles 186 and 188.

The Facts.The plaintiff demanded reimbursement of a fee paid in error, before the coming into existence of the Czechoslovak State, to the former Hungarian (now Czechoslovak) authorities. The Czechoslovak authorities were of the opinion that the claim of the plaintiff was barred by Articles 186 and 188 of the Treaty of Peace of Trianon which provided that the new Hungarian Government should be solely responsible for such obligations. Against this decision the plaintiff appealed by instituting an action before the Supreme Administrative Court.

Held: For the plaintiff.

The court referred to its decision of 18 May, 1922, No. 6098, in which it held that the reimbursement of a fee paid in error could not be refused on the ground only that it had been paid to the former Hungarian treasury before the coming into existence of the Czechoslovak State.1 In the opinion of the court the revolution did not, in regard to the question before the court, bring about any change in the existing legal order. As regards the stipulations of the Treaty of Peace of Trianon adduced by the defendant, the Treaty of Peace of Trianon as such cannot be considered equivalent to a law in the technical sense.2

¹ In the decision of 18 May, 1922, No. 6098, the Court held: It appears from the law of 28 October, 1918, No. 11, that the legislator recognised the principle of the continuity of the legal order before and after the revolution. As regards the financial administration in Slovakia he gave expression to this principle particularly in paragraph 6 of the law of 10 December, 1918...