Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: XI ZR 167/02
    • Member State: Germany
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Other
    • Decision date: 08/06/2004
    • Court: BGH (Supreme court)
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff:
    • Defendant:
    • Keywords:
  • Directive Articles
    Doorstep Selling Directive, Article 1, 1. Doorstep Selling Directive, Article 4
  • Headnote
    1. The provisions of the HWiG (Haustürwiderrufsgesetz - Doorstep Selling Act) are also applicable to collateral loan agreements and personal loan agreements, if the right of withdrawal is excluded or has expired according to the VerbrKrG (Verbraucherkreditgesetz – Consumer Credit Act).
    2. The conditions of a “doorstep situation” according to § 1 (1) No. 1 HWiG as it then applied are not fulfilled if the business merely makes telephone contact without a subsequent home visit.
  • Facts
    The matter at issue is a loan agreement concluded to finance membership of a property investment fund. By notarial contract of 26.9.1995 the claimants acquired shares in the GbR (Gesellschaft des bürgerlichen Rechts – civil law association) W, to finance which they took a loan from the respondent bank at the same time. The membership and the finance agreement were verified by the same investment broker. The claimant signed a pre-formulated notification of withdrawal, which contained a clause that in the event of the loan being paid out the withdrawal is void if the borrower does not repay the loan within two weeks following either declaration of the withdrawal or receipt of the loan amount. The loan amount was paid to the claimant in accordance with the agreement and to finance the acquisition of shares. From December 1999 the claimant discontinued making interest payments. The respondent thereupon cancelled the loan agreement with immediate effect on 9.10.2000.
    Subsequent to the claimants cancelling their shares in the GbR with immediate effect on 6.10.2000, they withdrew from the loan agreement on 20.12.2000 according to the HWiG. They claimed repayment of interest paid, release from all further obligations arising from the loan agreement as well as release and subrogation of securities against release of rental profits and conveyance of shares respectively. The respondent cross claimed repayment of the loan and settlement of the negative balance on the current account set up for the claimants.
    The LG (Landgericht – district court) dismissed the claim and allowed the cross claim. The Berufung (appeal on points of fact and law) by the claimant remained unsuccessful. The Revision (appeal on points of law) was dismissed.
  • Legal issue
    In the view of the BGH (Bundesgerichtshof – Federal Supreme Court) any right of withdrawal of the claimant had not expired at the time of declaration of withdrawal on 20.12.2001 according to § 1 HWiG as it applied until 30.9.2000 due to a failure to correctly notify the customers of their withdrawal rights.
    In the view of the BGH the conflicting rule in § 5 (2) HWiG as it then applied was to be interpreted in a manner consistent with the directive in favour of the consumer. Credit agreements, which are not to be regarded as contracts within the scope of the provision as they “fulfil the requirements of a contract within the meaning of the VerbrKrG”, nevertheless had to be regarded as within the scope of the HWiG as the VerbrKrG does not give the borrower a right of withdrawal as far reaching as that in the HWiG. The required interpretation consistent with the directive is not limited to collateral loan agreements, but also applies in equal measure to personal credit agreements as in the present case.
    The BGH in its judgment ntoed further that the notification of withdrawal at issue is evidently composed according to the special provisions of the VerbrKrG, in that any right of withdrawal of the claimant according to § 7 VerbKrG as it then applied would however have expired at the latest one year following the declaration aimed at concluding the loan agreement of 26.9.1995 (§ 7 (2), 3rd sentence VerbKrG as it then applied) and therefore did not exist at the time the declaration of withdrawal was made on 20.12.2001. This does not however apply to any right of withdrawal from § 1 HWiG as it then applied, as in this case there was no notification of the right of withdrawal in accordance with the statute.
    The BGH justifies this reasoning by stating that the notification in the loan agreement that in the event of the loan being paid out then withdrawal is void if the borrower does not repay the loan within two weeks of either declaring his withdrawal or the loan being paid out restricts the right of withdrawal and thus represents an impermissible extension according to § 2 (1), 3rd sentence HWiG. This could arouse the incorrect impression with the average customer, that his right of withdrawal emanating from § 1 (1) HWiG as it then applied requires the repayment of the loan amount within the named period just as does the VerbKrG.
    The issue of whether the notification of the right of withdrawal by the respondent suffices the requirements of Art. 4 Doorstep Selling Directive and/or § 7 (2), 2nd sentence VerbKrG as it then applied, is of no significance. According to the interpretation consistent with the directive of § 5 (2) HWiG as it then applied, both for collateral loan agreements as well as for personal loan agreements, the notification of the right of withdrawal to the borrower, so long as he has a right of withdrawal according to HWiG, must suffice the requirements of this Act in every respect. In the absence of notification of the right of withdrawal in accordance with the Act any right of withdrawal according to § 2 (1), 4th sentence HWiG as it then applied would only expire following complete performance of the loan agreement.
    The BGH nevertheless disallowed the appeal on the grounds that the claimant had not conclusively established that the condition for a doorstep situation attributable to the respondent within the meaning of § 1 HWiG as it then applied was fulfilled. From the submissions of the claimants it was not possible to find that oral negotiations on taking the loan occurred in their place of work or place of residence according to § 1 (1) No. 1 HWiG as it then applied. Making contact by telephone without subsequent home visit does not suffice the requirements of § 1 (1) No. 1 HWiG as it then applied.
  • Decision

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