Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: 3 Ob 94/00w
    • Member State: Austria
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Other
    • Decision date: 29/11/2000
    • Court: Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme court)
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff:
    • Defendant:
    • Keywords:
  • Directive Articles
    Doorstep Selling Directive, Article 3, 3. Doorstep Selling Directive, Article 5
  • Headnote
    2. Placing an advertisement in a newspaper for the sale of property is not tantamount to initiating an estate agency contract as per § 3 para 3 line 1 KSchG.
    1. § 3 para 3 line 1 KSchG excludes a right of withdrawal under § 3 para 1 KSchG if the facts of the case are exceptional. Thus, the supplier has to prove that the consumer initiated the contract as a prerequisite for the facts to be regarded as exceptional.
  • Facts
    In early 1997, the defendant wished to sell her property (complete with house) and therefore placed an advert in a daily newspaper to that effect. During a visit by the plaintiff to her property on 26th March 1997, she signed an estate agency contract with the plaintiff, instructing her to act as sole broker for the property. A commission fee of 189,000 Austrian Schillings was agreed. It was also agreed that this fee would be payable should the defendant prematurely cancel the sole broker agreement and breach the contract by failing to provide compelling grounds for cancellation. On 1st April 1997, the defendant formally wrote to the plaintiff to inform her that she was withdrawing from the estate agency contract and invoked her right of withdrawal under § 3 KSchG. The letter of cancellation was not accepted by the plaintiff.
    The plaintiff filed a lawsuit for payment of the commission fee on the grounds that the defendant had breached the contract and withdrawn prematurely. It was not the case that she had approached the defendant to offer her services. Rather, because the defendant had initiated the transaction herself, she was not entitled to a right of withdrawal under § 3 KSchG.
    The defendant objected that she had not made contact with the plaintiff. Rather, she was called by a colleague of the plaintiff. When the plaintiff visited the property, during a period of “poor health” for the defendant, she had exerted such pressure that the defendant ultimately signed the contract. The call made by the plaintiff’s colleague on 4th March 1997 should be regarded as having initiated the contract, meaning that she did indeed have a right of withdrawal under the KSchG.
    During the trial, it was not possible to ascertain whether the defendant had approached the plaintiff or her then colleague with a view to concluding the sole broker agreement. Both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal rejected the claim.
  • Legal issue
    The OGH made it clear at the outset that there was no doubt whatsoever that the contract had not been agreed on the supplier’s (plaintiff’s) premises. Thus, for the case in question, it was crucial to determine who carried the burden of proof for demonstrating that/whether the defendant had initiated the contract with the plaintiff as per § 3 para 3 line 1 KSchG.
    It should be assumed that placing a “for sale” advertisement in a daily newspaper was not tantamount to “initiating” a contract as per § 3 para 3 line 1 KSchG. The term “initiating” meant conduct signalling to the supplier one’s intention to enter into preliminary negotiations with a view to concluding a specific transaction. The defendant’s newspaper advert made it sufficiently clear that she intended to agree a contract of sale. Thus, the advert was in no way tantamount to initiating an estate agency agreement.
    In answering the question of who carries the burden of proof for demonstrating that a consumer has initiated a contract, the OGH argued that the basic rule is that each party must prove the existence of the facts that would mean the laws most favourable to their case should apply. Accordingly, the plaintiff is usually responsible for proving the existence of facts that would mean the law should apply, while the defendant must prove the existence of facts that would obstruct, quash or hinder the law’s application. Hence, in the case of the consumer’s withdrawal from the contract under § 3 KSchG, the critical question was whether she had initiated the contract, triggering the exclusion of the right of withdrawal under exceptional circumstances, or whether she had not, meaning that the right of withdrawal should stand.
    Citing academic literature and legal precedents in the OGH, the court ruled that if a consumer initiates a contract, this is not fundamental to his right of withdrawal, but rather triggers the provision in law that excludes the right of withdrawal in exceptional circumstances. The Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal had been right to rule that the plaintiff must prove that the defendant had initiated the transaction. Since she had failed to do so, her claim for payment of the commission fee had rightly been rejected.
  • Decision

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