GvW Graf von Westphalen advises Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia on EUR 56 million damages claim

The company Klausner Trading International GmbH has filed a EUR 56 million damages claim against the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), requesting the delivery of overdue supplies of wood. GvW Graf von Westphalen represents the state both in the preliminary injunction proceedings as well as in the main trial.

The dispute concerns a contract between the state of NRW and the Klausner group for the supply of spruce timber. Under the contract, the state undertook to supply Klausner group until the year 2014 with 195,000 solid cubic metres of spruce timber from NRW’s own state forest. There was also an intention to arrange, together with a private vendor, the sale of a further 305,000 solid cubic metres of spruce timber from privately owned and local forests.

In December 2012, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm, Germany, in a judgment which is now final and in force, held that the state had not effectively withdrawn from the contracts in 2009. Klausner group is now demanding damages for the non-delivery of wood in 2009. In its action for specific performance, the group is demanding the supply of approximately 1,6 million solid cubic metres of spruce timber in 2013 for the period dating back from 2010 until February 2013. However, NRW's state forest generally only provides a total of approximately 200,000 solid cubic metres each year.

The subsequent proceedings, for which GvW was instructed for the first time, deal with determining the specific duties of supply arising under the contract. In addition to EU state aid law aspects, contract, competition and public law issues are being considered. A date has not yet been set for the main trial.

The GvW team advising the federal state of NRW in all of the resulting legal proceedings is made up of the following lawyers from across the various GvW offices:

Dr Frank Süß (lead partner / litigation, Frankfurt), Dr Bettina Meyer-Hoffmann (contract and procurement law, Düsseldorf), Julia Schneider, Daniel Jamin (both litigation, Frankfurt), Christian Kusulis (competition and cartel law, Frankfurt), Dr Carsten Bittner (cartel law, Hamburg), Dr Gerd Schwendinger, LL.M. (state aid and subsidies law, Hamburg), Dr Ronald Steiling, Corinna Lindau (both public commercial law, Hamburg).