Romania: Remedy of recourse no longer available in insurance litigation

The legal amendment was introduced by the law amending and completing Law No. 134/2010 on the Civil Procedure Code, as well as amending and completing other normative acts (the "Law"), published in the Official Gazette of Romania, part I, no. 1074/2018.

For the insurance industry, a significant change is the redefinition of the types of litigation cases that are not subject to the remedy of recourse. The Law also includes court decisions ruled in insurance litigation in this category.

Thus, Article 483 (2) of the Romanian Civil Procedure Code, in its new form, provides that "(2) The court decisions ruled (...) in the matter of insurance (...) shall not be subject to recourse (...)."

Since the notion of "insurance matter" is not explicitly defined, and considering the variety of insurance litigations encountered in practice, it remains to be seen what types of court decisions will be considered to be ruled in the matter of insurance.

While a claim based on the contractual liability of the insurer under a facultative insurance policy does not raise any questions (in our view being a standard insurance matter), the situation is less clear in litigation based on the civil liability of the insurer due to negligence or cases in which the insurer acts as a guarantor.

Author: Adina Jivan