Brno - In the 1950s, more than 10 thousand grams of gold and golden coins belonging to a family from Trenčín, today's Slovakia, was confiscated by the Czechoslovak communist regime.

Now, the family wants its gold back, and the Czech National Bank and National Bank of Slovakia, the central banks of the two states that emerged in 1993 from the peaceful disintegration of Czechoslovakia, fight over who should pay. 

The confiscated gold ended up in the reserves of the Czechoslovak State Bank, the central bank of the Communist Czechoslovakia.

After the Communist regime fell in 1989, the family from Trenčín asked the state to return the gold, but the first ruling in the case was made in 1997.

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Prague's district court ruled that it is Slovakia's central bank that had to return the gold. In addition, the court said that the family was to receive only the 10 thousand grams of gold, as it had no right for the coins that were melted after the confiscation.

Prague's municipal court subsequently approved this verdict, saying that after Czechoslovakia split up in 1993, the confiscated gold ended up in the reserves of the Slovakian central bank anyway. After the split-up, the court argued, the gold remained on the territories of the two republics.

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The Slovakian central bank filed an appeal to the Czech supreme court, arguing that the decision of the district and municipal courts in Prague is wrong, and that the Czech-Slovak agreement on the obligations of central banks do not state clearly what to do in such cases.

"There is no agreement between the Czech National Bank and the National Bank of Slovakia on the responsibilities for the obligations of the Czechoslovak State Bank," the Slovakian party said in their appeal.

However, the senate of the supreme court led by Josef Rakovský rejected the appeal of the National Bank of Slovakia. The judges ruled that the issues concerning Slovakian citizens or persons with permanent residence in Slovakia should be handled by the bank in Bratislava.

The supreme court thus ruled that the previous verdicts of Prague's district and municipal court were correct.