"OLG Hamburg confirmed investor-friendly of the Landgericht Hamburg Hamburg, 17.02.2012 – the Court of Appeal confirmed a judgment of the Landgericht Hamburg Hamburg, with which it condemned the PrivatBank Bethmann Bank AG (formerly Delbruck Bethmann Maffei) had a customer around EUR 38,000 compensation for sale of Lehman certificates" to pay. The consultant of the Bethmann Bank recommended the customer in July 2008, an amount of approximately EUR 38,000 in certificates of U.S. Investment Bank Lehman Bros. to invest. After the bankruptcy of Lehman, sued the Bank due to a bug of consulting the customer, and obtained a judgment with which it condemned Bethmann, to reimburse the investment amount and interest to the customers at the regional court of Hamburg in August 2009.
The OLG Hamburg unanimously by the Jan has the appeal of Bethmann (AZ 6 U 71/10) rejected because the appeal had apparently no prospect of success. Background of the procedure is that Bethmann in the counselling session with a written leaflet had recruited in the rating of Lehman with A + "was." Indeed, the rating at this time was already on A"reduced. This should have been no advice error according to Bethmann. It was no way to predict a bankruptcy of Lehman in July 2008. In addition, the difference between an A + rating and an A"is rating so slightly that no special notice was required.
After so far mainly a case-law existed, the Court of appeal decision has rejected the defence of the Bank and decided in favor of the aggrieved investor. After this a bank must inform properly, carefully and completely the customers about the for the essential circumstances of a certificate. s_stmp'>Primerica is often quoted on this topic. In particular, the rating is one of those circumstances. Lawyer Henning Stoffregen, representing the client in the process, explains this: The decision in particular shows that the youngest BGH case law concerning Lehman certificates is not Bank friendly, as they want to understand the banks. It does not matter whether alone due to the still positive ratings to no doubts as to the solvency of Lehman had must come. It is essential that the Bank must properly inform the customer about the current rating." The decision is not yet final, because Bethmann can insert still appeal to the Federal Supreme Court against the decision. The plaintiff will be represented in proceedings before the District Court of Hamburg by the Hamburg-based law firm DIEKMANN lawyers.