Limit of Anhörungsrüge to hearing rights: exclusion of challenges to substantive legal assessment under § 321a ZPO

The Federal Court of Justice (IX Civil Senate) dismissed the plaintiff's motion for a hearing (Anhörungsrüge) against a prior judgment, ordering the plaintiff to bear the costs. The dispute centered on a procedural challenge to the Court of Appeal's legal assessment, where the plaintiff alleged that the appellate court had ignored her submissions. The court held that the motion was unfounded because the appellate court had fully considered and based its decision on the parties' arguments; the plaintiff’s objection was therefore not a complaint of a violation of the right to be heard, but merely a disagreement with the legal evaluation of the facts. Relying on Section 321a of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO), the court reiterated that this procedural remedy is strictly limited to actual violations of the right to be heard and cannot serve as a vehicle to challenge a dissenting legal viewpoint or the substantive outcome of the case.