What to do with a chain of transactions with the debtor's property

The Supreme Court considered the complaint of the bankrupt company, which remained dissatisfied with the decisions of lower instances.  The judges successively recognized the transaction on the alienation of the land plots by the applicant as invalid and made a decision to return the money paid to the buyer's bankruptcy estate.  However, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation pointed out that not everything was so simple in the case under consideration.

The situation began to unfold even before the recognition of the real estate seller bankrupt. A month before the start of the procedure, the applicant had alienated several land plots at a reduced price in favor of a third company. The buyer, in turn, accepted the plots, registered the ownership, but did not even pay the cost of real estate with a discount. Instead, he "sent" the plots further to a new acquirer at an even lower price.

The bankruptcy trustee of the first seller challenged the transactions for the alienation of land to the first buyer, the contracts were declared invalid.

The market value of the subject of the contract was charged from the buyer, since the plots themselves were alienated to the new buyer.

After that, the first buyer turned to the second with a claim for the recovery of the disputed property from someone else's illegal possession. At that time, the last buyer was already in the course of insolvency proceedings, so the judges recommended to apply to the court as part of a bankruptcy case. Subsequently, the courts came to the conclusion that it was impossible to resolve the issue with the disputed property, since the ownership of the original seller was not restored.

The Economic Board made a decision to reconsider the issue, pointing out that the courts misinterpreted the rules of law, and sent the case for reconsideration (decision No. 305-ES20-16615 (2) dated January 24, 2022).