Court of Catania, judgment of 24 July 2026, No. 3599

An action against the official who allowed the supply in breach of the accounting rules is subsidiary in nature to that available to the professional against the public entity, with the consequence that, where there is a formal engagement containing an arbitration clause, the professional must first proceed against his own contractual counterparty by referring the dispute to the arbitral tribunal.
A merely incidental determination of the validity of the contractual relationship entered into with the entity, which is referred to the arbitrators, is not possible for the purpose of establishing the direct liability of the official, a determination with the force of res judicata following a direct action against the entity being required for that purpose, all the more so where the examination of the contract's invalidity requires the lawfulness of a conditional clause and the obligations, including those of good faith, incumbent upon the original contracting parties to be addressed.
The failure to resume the proceedings against the entity before the competent arbitral tribunal rules out the existence of the conditions for the subsidiary liability of the official, since, in the absence of a declaration that the relationship with the entity is void, no substitution by operation of law of a party to the contract can be effected.