Supreme Court of Russia clarified how to identify an invalid creditor

The highest court of Russia considered the case on the complaint against the lower judicial acts, which satisfied the creditor's application for the inclusion of the debt to him in the register of creditors’ claims.  The debt was based on an assignment agreement, as well as on a cash receipt, according to which the assignor transferred the funds to the bankrupt company.

The courts of three instances did not see the problem and the claim was satisfied, however, the Supreme Court of Russia drew attention to the importance of a detailed examination of each statement of the creditor in order to determine the validity of his claims.

In particular, the economic board noted that the fact of transferring funds to the debtor in cash does not raise unequivocal suspicion of the invalidity of the claims, but the situation should be considered in detail.

When making a decision, the judges had to figure out whether the assignor in this case could have had such a sum of money, whether the document submitted by him and confirming the amount of the debt was signed at the specified time, as well as by an authorized person. The petition filed by one of the creditors to conduct a handwriting examination in the case did not meet with due attention from the court, and during the consideration of the case, more attention was paid to the arguments of the applicant.

As a result, the Supreme Court of Russia came to the conclusion that the courts did not conduct a detailed analysis of the situation, which led to the cancellation of the issued decisions and the referral of the case for reconsideration (decision of November 9, 2021 № 305-ES21-9462 (1, 2) in case № А40-267855 / 2018).