The Supreme Court of Russia has not recognized coronavirus as a force major for everyone

It might seem that the introduction of a self-isolation regime, the economic crisis and the forced closure of a number of companies are such circumstances, but in fact, that is not so.

Earlier, we had been writing that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry refused to issue the certificates of force majeure to 95% of the entrepreneurs.  Demand for an official document, exempting from the obligations to the counterparts, has increased significantly during the pandemic, but as it turned out, not each case falls under the letter of the law.

On April 21, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation published a review of judicial practice, regarding the spread of coronavirus infection.  Among other issues, the highest court assessed the possibility of exempting the entrepreneurs from the fulfilling of their obligations in connection with the occurrence of the force majeure circumstances (the rationale is given in the answer to question No. 7).

The Supreme Court has indicated that a pandemic, along with the introduced non-working day regime, cannot be a reason for a systematic non-fulfillment of obligations. In each specific case, the court will evaluate the conditions, in order to understand, how objective they are and if another entrepreneur, being in his place, could fulfill the same obligations.

At the same time, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation outlined four criteria, proving the existence of which, a party can be exempted from the liability for failure to fulfill the obligations. Among them there are:

• the fact of the presence and duration of force majeure;

• a causal relationship between the force majeure and non-performance or delay in the performance of an obligation;

• non-involvement of the applicant in the creation of force majeure;

• adoption of the reasonable measures to prevent or minimize the possible risks by the applicant.

 This position of the court seems to be reasonable, since the regime of self-isolation as well as the epidemiological situation are different in different regions of our country, and the exempting from the fulfillment of obligations for everyone without exception and indiscriminately, can lead to the complete chaos, harming, first of all, the entrepreneurs themselves.