Reservation judgment
The Code of Civil Procedure describes a reservation judgment as a judgment that is subject to the further course of the process.
Judgments with reservations can be issued in two situations in German civil proceedings:
- in the document process , if the action is to be upheld on the basis of the documents presented ( Section 599 ZPO). In this case, the defendant can assert his rights in the follow-up proceedings and obtain further evidence ;
- (rarely in practice) in the case of a set-off if the claim would in any case exist without the set-off and a decision on the set-off claim can only be made after further evidence has been collected ( Section 302 ZPO).
In both cases, the plaintiff can already enforce the reservation judgment .
Without the provision of security, a reservation judgment is only enforceable if it is a judgment that was issued in the process of documents, bills of exchange or checks ( Section 708 sentence 1 number 4 ZPO) or in a property-related matter (e.g. payment action) and the The subject of the conviction in the main does not exceed € 1,250 or if only the decision on the costs is enforceable and enables an enforcement to the value of no more than € 1,500 (Section 708 sentence 1 number 11 ZPO). All other reservations are only enforceable against security deposit. If the defendant suffers damage as a result of the enforcement, this can be sued for in the pending part of the lawsuit, so that - if the set-off takes effect - a decision on the compensation claim can be made immediately. The decision about the enforcement of a reservation judgment should therefore only be made after consulting a lawyer.
