Mordcovici v General Administration of Posts and Telegraphs

• Jurisdiction: Rumania
• Date: 29 October 1929
• Docket Number: 38
• Court: Court of Cassation (Romania)

Rumania, Court of Cassation.

Case No. 38

Mordcovici

and

General Administration of Posts and Telegraphs.

State Succession Succession to Obligations Universal and Partial Succession Succession of Rumania to Obligations Contracted by Russian Authorities in Bessarabia.

The Facts.On 14 January, 1918, when parts of the country were occupied by Rumanian troops, the plaintiff paid in at the post office in Chiinu (Bessarabia) the sum of 2,784 Russian roubles to be transmitted to an addressee in another part of Bessarabia. The money never reached its destination. In April, 1918, Bessarabia was declared to form part of Rumania.1 The sender then instituted proceedings against the Rumanian Administration of Posts and Telegraphs. He maintained that the sending of the money constituted a contract between him and the Russian Administration and that the contract had passed unaltered to the Rumanian Postal Administration. The Court of first instance accepted the plaintiff's contention. The defendant appealed.

Held (on appeal): that the judgment must be reversed. The annexation of Bessarabia to Rumania did not cause a succession of the Rumanian State to the obligations of the Russian State in respect of Bessarabia. There was no legal rule laying down a universal succession on this ground. On the other hand, this was not a case of partial succession. Such succession could not take place except on the basis of a convention between the two States or, failing a convention, on the strength of a declaration of the Rumanian State recognising these obligations. Neither of these conditions had been fulfilled. Article 8 of the Convention relating to Bessarabia concluded...