Judgment of the Court; 16 December 1980; Netherlands State v Reinhold Rüffer; in Case 814/79

The concept of "civil and commercial matters" within the meaning of the first paragraph of Article 1 of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters does not include actions such as that referred to by the national court brought by the agent responsible for administering public waterways against the person having liability in law in order to recover the costs incurred in the removal of a wreck carried out by or at the instigation of the administering agent in the exercise of its public authority.