Supreme Court of Russia clarified the features of enforcement immunity

Supreme Court of Russia clarified the features of enforcement immunity

Supreme Court of Russia clarified the features of enforcement immunity
The case on invalidation of the transaction on the donation of expensive real estate owned by the debtor was transferred for consideration of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The claim was initiated by the bankruptcy trustee, but not all judges supported him.

Initially, the first instance and appeal instances rejected his claims, then the district canceled the rulings and returned the case for reconsideration. After that, the application was satisfied, the judicial act resisted the appeal, but the district again took the opposite position, this time considering that there was no reason to satisfy the claim.

The circumstances of the case are as follows: the disputed property was built at a time when the future debtor had already begun to accumulate debt obligations.

A year before the initiation of the bankruptcy proceedings, the debtor presented his minor son with a house and a plot on which it stood, and also changed the place of his registration in this property.

During reconsideration of the case, the judges of the first and appeal instances found an interest in donating real estate, noted the debtor's insolvency at that moment and concluded that the latter's intentions were not in good faith.

However, the district court considered such conclusions premature, indicating that the family was registered in the disputed object of real estate, and they did not have any other housing, which means that the rules on enforcement immunity apply to real estate. According to the logic of the district court, there is no point in recognizing the donation agreement as invalid, since the house will still not be included into the bankruptcy estate.

However, this position was not shared by the Supreme Court of Russia, which indicated that the rules on enforcement immunity do not exclude the possibility of deteriorating the living conditions of the debtor, and refusal from it should have real economic sense.

The highest court noted that it was possible to abandon the application of the enforcement immunity rule in the case when the debtor maliciously created a situation when he had only one suitable housing left, or when this happened for objective reasons. In both cases, the court decides on the sale of the property, providing the debtor and his family with the opportunity to live in another substitute housing (ruling No. 304-ES21-9542 (1,2) of October 7, 2021).


18.11.2021