THE BORROWER'S ABUSE AFFECTS THE REQUIREMENTS FOR HIM

THE BORROWER'S ABUSE AFFECTS THE REQUIREMENTS FOR HIM

THE BORROWER'S ABUSE AFFECTS THE REQUIREMENTS FOR HIM
Legion Bank, represented by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), tried in court to include its claim for 2 billion rubles in the register of the insolvent Ukrrosmetall. Half of the debt was made up of penalties for a loan that was declared invalid.

By three instances, the amount of the bank's claims was reduced to 738 million rubles. The courts considered the penalty disproportionate to the consequences of the violated obligation and reduced it to 10% of the amount of the principal debt.

The DIA disagreed with the position of the lower authorities and appealed to the Supreme Court. The agency noted in the complaint that the debtor participated in schemes for the withdrawal of assets of a credit institution and did it intentionally, thanks to which he used the bank's funds free of charge and for a long time. The latter spent a lot of effort to get his money back. Given these circumstances, the DIA noted, the penalty is quite proportionate.

In addition, the lower authorities also reduced the amount of interest for using other people's money.

The Supreme Court annulled the judicial acts of lower instances regarding the refusal to include interest in the register of debtor's claims and sent the dispute for a new consideration (Ruling of the Supreme Court of 30.01.2024 in case No. A40-254860/2021(No. 305-ES23-7437(3)).

The court considered the approach of the courts to the amount of the penalty to be sufficiently motivated, but did not agree with how the lower instances calculated the interest. The courts did not assess how justified the Agency's claims on the amount of interest were. Despite the fact that Article 333 of the Civil Code does not apply to the collection of interest for the use of credit funds, no other arguments were given by the lower authorities to reduce the amount of these percentages.

02.02.2024