Cases from practice

A company from Russia (my client) won a lawsuit against a Belarusian OJSC, because the defendant did not complete the work to put the machine into operation. One of the wordings of the decision of the Russian Arbitration Court was “to collect a penalty for the cost of work performed before the date of completion of the work.” Those. a specific amount is not determined, but only a calculation formula, which is unusual for the judicial system of Belarus. The JSC decided to liquidate before paying out the money. The debtor’s liquidator refused to include the penalty in the register of creditors’ claims.

Filed a claim in the economic court to force the liquidator to include a debt in the register in the amount of 15,000,000 Russian rubles;

Provided legal support to the negotiation process between the management of an LLC claiming to receive a penalty and the liquidator of the debtor.

The girl asked for help to exclude from the birth certificate of her son the entry that her ex-husband is the father of the child. The unusual and specific nature of the situation was that, contrary to established practice, paternity was being challenged not by the man, but by the child’s mother.

The attorney prepared a statement of claim to challenge paternity. Then he represented the client’s interests in court, where he substantiated the legality and validity of her position, proved that the mother can also challenge paternity if the biological father of the child is not the man who is indicated as the father in the birth certificate.

The client’s ex-husband did not pay alimony. Only the mother was responsible for supporting the three children. The girl turned to me with the goal of influencing the alimony payer through legal means to encourage timely payments.

Based on the materials of the enforcement proceedings and the circumstances of the case, the attorney drew up a reasoned statement of claim for the recovery of a penalty in connection with late payment of alimony. After filing the claim, he gave the girl recommendations on how to behave in court and prove she was right.

The travel agent entered into the agreement with clients for the provision of travel services, but could not send tourists on a trip due to the cancellation by Flydubai flight program to Belarus. The travel agent returned the money to the tourist. However, the tourist filed a lawsuit for consumer protection and demanded a penalty and compensation for non-pecuniary damage.

We proved in court that the travel agent (my client) did not violate consumer rights. It was not possible to send tourists on a trip due to the cancellation of Flydubai flights, which means that the obligation of a travel agent to send tourists on a trip has ceased on the grounds of “impossibility of performance”. And since there is no obligation, then it is illegal to apply the sanctions established by the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, because it is impossible to punish someone for non-fulfillment of a non-existent obligation.

The client-individual entrepreneur performed topographic and geodetic works by order of a limited liability company. Exploration work, for which topographic survey was carried out, was suspended by the customer, so the individual entrepreneur was not able to complete topographic and geodetic work. The customer refused to pay the entrepreneur for the work performed, arguing that they were incomplete.

The attorney has represented the interests of the individual entrepreneur in the economic court. At the trial, he argued that the work was not completed through no fault of the entrepreneur, and that the result of partially completed work can be used in the future. And so – the work is subject to payment.

A private transport company was fined with the confiscation of 6 semi-trailers. The district court found the enterprise guilty of not declaring semi-trailers when they were imported into the territory of the Customs Union.

The attorney advised the management of the firm on the appeal of the court decision. He suggested what arguments can be used in higher instances in order to achieve the cancellation of an illegal decision. As a result, it was proved that the semi-trailers were imported into the territory of the Customs Union temporarily to complete the international transportation of goods and were declared by the enterprise as vehicles of international transportation.

A verbal agreement was concluded between the client and his acquaintance, according to which the client promised to organize construction work in a country house. The client has received more than 2 million Russian rubles. The acquaintance considered that the work had not been completed, and turned to the police with a statement about fraud.
The audit has been lasting 8 months. Construction and technical expertise was appointed.
According to the conclusion of the construction and technical expertise, the cost of the work was significantly less than the amount of money transferred. The client was threatened with the initiation of a criminal case under Art. 209 of the Criminal Code “Fraud”.

Attorney actions:
1. Studying the expert’s opinion. After studying the estimate of construction work attached to the expert’s opinion, it was revealed that when determining the cost of construction work, the expert did not take into account part of the work performed on behalf of the customer. When taken into account, the total cost of construction work approximately coincided with the amount of cash transferred to the client.
2. A petition has been filed to request additional evidence confirming the fact that the work was performed by the client, which was disputed by the customer.
3. Preparation, instructing the client and his support when giving explanations. During the survey, the attention of police officers was drawn to the fact that the cost of work performed between a client and his acquaintance is regulated by their verbal agreement, and not by price standards in construction. Under the contract, the price of the work was determined significantly higher than the price according to the standards used by the expert when calculating the cost of construction work.

The regional department of internal affairs was agreed with the arguments of the attorney and his client and issued a decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case against the client.

The client, an individual entrepreneur, rented two cars from an individual and used them in a taxi. After the end of the lease, the owner of the cars revealed breakdowns, defects and malfunctions in them, in which he blamed the lessee – an individual entrepreneur. The owner of the cars went to court and tried to recover the cost of repairs from the client.

The attorney attended every court session. It was proved that malfunctions and breakdowns of cars could occur after they were handed over to the owner and that the client was not to blame for their occurrence. Emphasis was placed on the lack of evidence of the return of the car with damage. Indicated on the incompleteness of the testimonies of witnesses. The attorney also provided an appraiser’s certificate, which refuted the methodology for determining the amount of damage applied by the plaintiff.

The leadership of the district executive committee tried to dismiss the director of an agricultural OJSC for guilty actions, so commissions and inspections were sent to dairy farms to look for violations that could become grounds for dismissal of the director for failure to perform labor duties. As a result, the director was fired on defamatory grounds.

The attorney drew up a competent, reasoned statement of claim and represented the interests of the dismissed director in court. At trial, the attorney argued that the dismissal was illegal.

The court changed the wording of the reason for the dismissal of the director from paragraph 4 of Art. 42 of the Labor Code “Systematic violation of labor duties” for part 1 of Art. 260 of the Labor Code “At the request of the head of the organization”, and also collected the average earnings for the time of forced absenteeism, compensation for non-pecuniary damage, and the costs of paying for the services of the attorney.

The client, a citizen of Russia, in March 2017 concluded with a citizen of Belarus (the defendant) a contract for the sale of a mobile tent circus, according to which the client sold the specified circus to the defendant. The contract provided for an installment payment for the circus. For violation of the terms of payment, a penalty was provided.
Since the buyer repeatedly violated the terms of payment, the client did not agree to give him all the documentation for the circus until the penalty was paid on his part.

The attorney did the following:

1. During the consultation, the lawyer studied the contract and correspondence between the buyer and the seller. It was found that, despite the illiterate terms of the contract, one could try to bring claims not only for the recovery of a penalty, but also for the recovery of the circus from someone else’s illegal possession.
2. The attorney drew up a statement of claim, where he indicated the maximum number of claims that it was advisable to declare, namely, the recovery of 1 million Russian rubles forfeit and the recovery of the circus worth 2.1 million Russian rubles.
3. The attorney represented the interests of the client in the litigation by proxy without the participation of the client.
At the court session, a settlement agreement was concluded between the attorney’s representative and the defendant, according to which the defendant undertakes to pay the client a penalty in the amount of 200,000 Russian rubles. The client waived all the stated claims in exchange for payment.
Currently, the money has been transferred to the client in full in Russia. In addition, the republican budget returned to the client 50% of the state duty paid in the amount of 26,000 Russian rubles (in connection with the approval of the settlement agreement by the court).

A woman turned to the attorney, whose ex-husband was an individual entrepreneur, paid alimony very rarely and with a large delay. Only the mother took care of the three children. The task of the attorney is to achieve the real execution of the court decision on the recovery of alimony.

Taking into account the specific circumstances of the client’s situation, she was offered to apply to the court with a claim to recover from her ex-husband and father of the children a penalty for alimony arrears. Another of the recommendations is to achieve the seizure of property in connection with the arrears in the payment of alimony. The attorney drew up a reasoned statement of claim, calculated the debt on alimony, and instructed the woman how to behave in court.

Due to constantly arising quarrels and disagreements, the client’s wife applied to the court with a demand to recover alimony from her husband for two minor children. Claimed that, despite living together, the client does not provide funds for the maintenance of children. The client did not agree with the claim and turned to a attorney for help. The only possible way to defend against an unfounded claim was to file a counterclaim for the recovery of alimony for the maintenance of minor children from the spouse. Therefore, the recommendations were as follows:

• draw up a counterclaim for the recovery of alimony;
• to file petitions in court for the recovery of documents and information indicating the irrational spending of money by the spouse, in order to prove that the waste of money was to the detriment of the interests of the family and children;
• provide evidence that the father fully fulfills the obligations of supporting minor children.

As part of the trial, the attorney did the following work:

1. The attorney supported the petitions made by the client in the counterclaim, substantiating the need to obtain information about the spouse from banks, mobile operators, leasing organizations, etc.
2. Questions were asked to the plaintiff, defendant, witnesses.
3. It was possible to present written evidence, audio and video materials, refuting the testimony of witnesses from the side of the plaintiff.
4. A reasoned justification was made for the need to satisfy the claims of the client and the refusal to satisfy the claims of his wife.

The buyer refused to pay for the delivered goods. The supplier contacted a lawyer. The attorney collected documents, prepared a statement to the court. As a result, the supplier recovered $53,000 in arrears and a fine, as well as attorney’s fees, in an indisputable writ proceeding from the buyer.

The company is a resident of the Russian Federation supplied the company – a resident of the Republic of Belarus with ore and crushed stone, but the buyer did not pay in full. The matter was complicated by the fact that the client-supplier did not have consignment notes confirming the deliveries. In the course of the trial, evidence of the delivery was obtained and an amicable agreement was concluded on the payment of the entire amount of the debt by the defendant-buyer.

Parents after the dissolution of the marriage lived separately. The children stayed with their father. The client’s ex-wife filed a lawsuit to determine the place of residence of children with her. The man did not agree with the claim and turned to a lawyer.

The attorney, taking into account knowledge of judicial practice in similar cases, advised the man, gave recommendations on how to behave in court, prepared a substantiated counterclaim to the court, and represented interests in court. In the trial, the attorney argued that the situation in the mother’s family was not always favorable and calm, and that it would be better for the children if their place of residence was determined with the father.

Social Security Fund presented a demand to an individual entrepreneur to pay a large amount of debt on contributions. The entrepreneur worked under an employment contract during the period for which the Social Security Fund accrued contributions, so he does not have to pay contributions. However, the employer did not provide reporting (PU) to the fund that the entrepreneur also worked under an employment contract. Therefore, the Fund had no reason to write off the debt.

To write off the debt on contributions, the attorney has prepared a statement of claim to the employer to establish the fact of labor relations. He advised the entrepreneur on how to behave in court and prove his case, what arguments and arguments to achieve a positive decision.