Judgment_paragraph 19 · Livio Missir Mamachi di Lusignano v European Commission (C-417/14 RX)

19The General Court considered that that line of authority was confirmed by other decisions of the Court. In that regard, the General Court, at paragraphs 55 to 59 of the judgment in Missir Mamachi di Lusignano v Commission (T‑401/11 P, EU:T:2014:625), made the following findings:55 Thus, in the order in Fournier v Commission [(114/79 to 117/79, EU:C:1980;124)], the Court of Justice upheld in principle, at least implicitly, the fact that the members of an official’s family acting “on their own behalf” and claiming reparation for damage suffered “personally” must bring proceedings under Article 178 [of the EEC Treaty] (now Article 268 TFEU) rather than under Article 179 [of the EEC Treaty] (now Article 270 TFEU).56 The Court of Justice approved that choice in [Leussink and Others v Commission (169/83 and 136/84, EU:C:1986:371)], in a situation in which the applicants had expressly based their claims for compensation on different provisions according to whether or not they were officials, namely Article 179 [of the EEC Treaty] for Mr Leussink and Article 178 [of the EEC Treaty] and the second paragraph of Article 215 [of the EEC Treaty] for his wife and children.57 In his Opinion in [Leussink and Others v Commission (169/83 and 136/84, EU:C:1986:371), Advocate General Sir Gordon Slynn acknowledged that the family’s action had been correctly based on Articles 178 [of the EEC Treaty] and 215 [of the EEC Treaty], since it related to the independent loss suffered by the family and did not concern a dispute between an official and his institution.58 Although it did not formally rule on that question, the Court of Justice none the less implicitly approved the decision to bring the action by the official’s family under Article 178 [of the EEC Treaty] rather than Article 179 [of the EEC Treaty], at paragraph 25 of the judgment in [Leussink v Commission (169/83 and 136/84, EU:C:1986:371)], although it considered that the dispute “[arose] from the relationship between an official and his institution”. In addition, the Court of Justice expressly based its decision on costs on Article 69 of its Rules of Procedure, namely the provision applicable to actions brought by individuals who are not officials.59 Last, in Vainker v Parliament [(T‑48/01, EU:T:2004:61)], this Court dismissed as unfounded the action brought by Mrs Vainker, relying on the precedent of [Leussink v Commission (169/83 and 136/84, EU:C:1986:371)], and implicitly approving the choice of Article 235 EC as the appropriate legal basis of the action.’