Request for a preliminary ruling from the Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Portugal) lodged on 13 November 2014 — P v M

(Case C-507/14)

Language of the case: Portuguese

Referring court

Supremo Tribunal de Justiça

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: P

Defendant: M

Question referred

‘Where a case concerning parental responsibility is brought in one Member State and another case, in which the same cause of action is at issue, has been brought at an earlier point in time in a different Member State and which has since been stayed at the request of the applicant in that case, without having been served on the relevant defendant and without the latter having been informed of its existence or having participated in that case in any way, and which was still stayed at the time the defendant in the earlier case brought the subsequent proceedings, can it be deemed, in the light of Article 16(1)(a) of Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 ¹ of 27 November 2003 and for the purposes of Article 19(2) of that regulation, that the court before which the earlier proceedings were stayed was the first court to be seised?’

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¹ Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, repealing Regulation (EC) No 1347/2000 — (OJ 2003 L 338, p. 1).