Court rules in Totilas semen legal battle

The case has hinged on whether the stallion's previous owners sold exclusive breeding rights as well as the horse

- LUCY ELDER

THE exclusive breeding rights to the late record-breaking dressage star Totilas are held by Paul Schockemöhle, a Dutch court has ruled in a dispute over the dead stallion's semen.

The case involves Totilas's past owner Kees Visser and Mr Schockemöhle, and has been rumbling through German and Dutch courts for years.

H&H reported on an interim decision by a German court to prevent Mr Visser from selling Totilas's frozen semen (news, 11 April 2021), which was upheld later that year following an appeal.

Once the interim injunction proceedings were concluding, main proceedings had to be initiated to conclude the dispute by a final decision. Mr Schockemöhle did so at the Oldenburg Regional Court, and these proceedings are ongoing.

At the same time, Mr Visser initiated main proceedings in the Netherlands, which have recently concluded, where he sought the declaration that he is entitled to sell Totilas's semen. He also sought damages of up to €18m (£15.93 million) against Mr Schockemöhle.

The Court of Gelderland in Arnhem, the Netherlands, dismissed Mr Visser's claim on 15 February 2023.

VERBAL AGREEMENT

THE court document was anonymised, referring to Mr Visser as the plaintiff and Mr Schockemöhle the defendant.

The case hinged on whether buying Totilas in 2010 for €9.5m, in a verbal agreement, included exclusive breeding rights. It also focused on whether a box of 301 semen straws with a value of at least several hundred thousand euros" delivered to the new owner were a gift or not.

Mr Visser, who had frozen semen from when he owned Totilas, argued that Mr Schockemöhle bought only the horse, not exclusive breeding rights. After Totilas's death in 2020, his former owner listed the frozen semen for sale online via a third party, which prompted the dispute and legal wrangling.