Monitoring civil proceedings of LLC “BIOL” v. O. Dunaev (hearing 02/11/2020)

On February 11, 2020, the Zaporizhzhya Court of Appeal heard civil proceedings on the appeal of the “BIOL” Limited Liability Company against the decision of the Melitopol City District Court of the Zaporizhzhya Region of December 13, 2019 in the case on the claim of O. Dunaev to LLC “BIOL” on debt collection under a lease agreement.

We remind you that at the moment, the Melitopol City Court is considering several lawsuits with the participants in this proceeding, including the lawsuit of O. Dunaev against O. Shostak on the division of the “BIOL” plant located on the territory of Ukraine, and the lawsuit of O. Shostak against O. Dunaev on the return of funds paid.

Consideration of this proceeding began with a statement of the attorney of the “BIOL” for attaching documents to the case file: copies of “BIOL”’s statements regarding the commission of criminal offenses, as well as letters from the National Police of Ukraine to commence a pre-trial investigation on the grounds of criminal offenses and extracts from the register of pre-trial investigations for three criminal proceedings. This petition was submitted with the argument that the original of the contract appears in this case, which was not signed by the director of the “BIOL” LLC and that it became known at the time of the hearing on December 29, 2019 when it was considered in the court of first instance. Subsequently, the director of LLC “BIOL” initiated the submission of applications to the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine on the grounds of criminal offenses under Art. 15, 190, 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – fraud, forgery of documents. The court decided to attach the documents to the case file and study them simultaneously with other evidence in the deliberation room.

Due to the fact that in the court of first instance a copy of the lease agreement was added to the case file, in which there are a number of disagreements with the lease agreement, which was signed by the director of “BIOL” LLC, the representative of “BIOL” LLC submitted the following petition for the appointment of judicial handwriting and technical examinations to clarify the originality of the signature in the Lease Agreement in the column “Director of “BIOL” LLC – O. Shostak or another person, as well as the validity of the seal of “BIOL” LLC.

When considering the application for examination, the Court took into account that the consideration of this application depends directly on whether it sees the original lease agreements or not. And also, given that at this stage the fact of the existence of the non-residential premises lease agreement itself is disputed, court suggested that both parties provide the original non-residential premises lease agreements and postpone the hearing to February 25, 2020.

The International Society for Human Rights will continue to monitor and clarify the details of this proceeding.