Court of Appeal of Catania, 18 November 2025, No. 1521

An arbitration clause contained in a leasing contract, which reserves to the arbitral tribunal jurisdiction over disputes relating to that contract, does not automatically extend to suretyship guarantee relationships entered into by third parties to the main contract, who remain outside the arbitration agreement and cannot invoke the lack of jurisdiction of the ordinary judicial authority.
A claim for the condemnation of guarantors, based on a guarantee relationship autonomous from the main contract covered by an arbitration clause, may be brought and decided by the ordinary judicial authority independently of the referral to arbitrators of disputes relating to the guaranteed contract, given the severability of claims concerning respectively the determination of contractual breach and the determination of the right to performance arising from the contract of guarantee.