An employee demanded his salary from the company he worked for, but also from its parent company and from its grandfather company, which is a Swiss company, and contended that the mere delivery of the statement of claim to the two Israeli companies also constitutes delivery to the Swiss company.
The Court found that the Swiss company is deemed a company active in Israel and its subsidiaries are its representatives in Israel and therefore documents can be delivered to it through them. When a defendant lives outside of Israel and has a representative in Israel who represents it on a regular basis in connection with its affairs in Israel, documents can be furnished through the representative in Israel if the claim concerns the same matter. The fact that a foreign company has a subsidiary in Israel does not make the Israeli company an address to for service of process. In this case the officers and directors of the Swiss company live in Israel, decisions concerning it are made by the management of the Israeli company and it also handles all the affairs of the Swiss company in Israel, including banks, accountants and more, all for many years. Therefore, the Swiss company actually has a constructive presence in Israel and its respected Israeli subsidiary can be recognized as its address in Israel.