Swiss judge throws out one John Elkann lawsuit over Agnelli inheritance

MILAN, April 8 (Reuters) - A Swiss court has declared inadmissible one of the lawsuits brought by Stellantis STLAM.MI and Ferrari RACE.MI Chairman John Elkann and his siblings against their mother Margherita Agnelli over the inheritance of the Agnelli business dynasty.

In a ruling dated April 2 and seen by Reuters, the head of the court in the city of Thun also ordered Elkann and siblings Lapo and Ginevra to reimburse legal costs of about 816,000 Swiss francs ($1.04 million) and to pay their mother about 919,000 Swiss francs.

The case sought to establish the jurisdiction of the Swiss court over the estate of the siblings' grandmother Marella Caracciolo, Margherita's mother and the wife of Gianni Agnelli, the Fiat boss who became a symbol of Italy's post-war economic boom and died two decades ago.

In a dispute that has riven one of Italy's elite families, Margherita is fighting to overturn agreements she signed in 2004. Based on those agreements she received 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion), after her father's death in order to eventually benefit her five children from a second marriage. She argues that she should have had a more equal share of the Agnelli investments.

The aim of the Thun lawsuit was to secure a ruling confirming the validity of Marella Caracciolo's will, recognising the three Elkanns as heirs and excluding their mother Margherita from the succession.

Lawyers for the Elkanns described the ruling as "wrong" and said they would appeal to Bern's higher court.

"We maintain that the Thun courts are the competent courts for the succession of Marella Caracciolo Agnelli, who had her domicile in Switzerland since the early 1970s," they said.

Marella died in 2019 and one of the elements in dispute is whether she was resident in Switzerland or Italy in her later life.

CASES IN ITALY AND SWITZERLAND

The Thun ruling did not address the merits of the case and the Elkann lawyers said it had no impact on the succession proceedings or on the 2004 agreement between Marella Caracciolo and Margherita Agnelli - a key deal in setting the current ownership structure of the Elkanns' vehicle Dicembre, which sits at the top of the Agnelli family holding Exor EXOR.AS.

They said the main inheritance case in Switzerland was still pending before the Geneva court.

In Italy, a civil case is also before the Turin court, where lawyers for Margherita Agnelli argue that Italian courts have jurisdiction over the inheritance dispute.

Lawyers for Margherita Agnelli welcomed the Thun court's decision, saying it was "likely to have significant implications for the proceedings currently under way, including the civil case in Turin as well as the criminal proceedings".

Criminal proceedings in Turin concern some counts of alleged tax fraud, with John Elkann among those under investigation. He has denied any wrongdoing.

($1 = 0.7883 Swiss francs)
($1 = 0.8559 euros)