THE SUPREME COURT OF RUSSIA CONSIDERED A CASE OF THE INCLUSION OF THE DEBT ON A BILL IN THE REGISTER OF THE CREDITORS’ CLAIMS

The Judicial Chamber on Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation considered an interesting case on the inclusion of the debt on a bill of an individual in the register of creditors' claims (RCC). At the same time, the position of the courts on this issue was ambiguous.

The court of first instance did not see any obstacles and included the claim in the register. The appellate instance saw inconsistencies in the claims presented to the debtor and refused to include the claim in the RCC. The district court did not support the arguments of the appeal instance and took the side of the court of first instance.

As for the highest judicial authority, it supported the appeal, having upheld this particular court decision and the reason is as follows.

The claim of the creditor (individual) was based on a number of the bank-bills, previously issued by the debtor. At the same time, the bank-bills were initially issued to the legal entities, and after that they have already been sold to a citizen, who has applied to the court.

However, during the initial registration of the securities, a number of mistakes had been made, and the court had doubts about the good faith of the actions of the new buyer - an individual.

The citizen did not provide any evidence of payment for the bank-bills, as well as the sources of his income for which the securities could have been purchased. In addition, the mistakes made during the initial execution of the bank-bills in favor of the various legal entities were massive, which made it possible to doubt their randomness (definition No. 307-ES19-20020 dated July 16, 2020).