Recognition and enforcement of the Decision of the Economic Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Belarus
REVERA lawyers start this year with successful representation of the interests of the Client - a major representative of the banking sector of the Republic of Uzbekistan - in the case on recognition and enforcement of the Decision of the Tashkent City Court in Belarus.
*The Client's interests were represented during the court hearings by attorney-at-law of the Minsk Regional Bar Association, with whom REVERA lawyers closely co-operated, jointly developing the strategy of the case.
Circumstances of the case
The Client and the Debtor entered into the Development Agreement, according to which the Debtor undertook to perform work to implement the software into the Client's automated management system, and a Licence Agreement, according to which the Debtor undertook to provide the Client with the rights to use the software for a fee.
Under the terms of the Licence Agreement and the Development Agreement, the Parties have agreed that the law of the Republic of Uzbekistan to be applied to potentially arising disputes and have also agreed that such disputes shall be resolved by the Tashkent City Court.
For the fulfilment of its contractual obligations, the Client made a payment to the Debtor, which included the Client's right to use the software for a period of 50 (fifty) years. The Debtor, in turn, improperly fulfilled its contractual obligations: the submitted software was unfit for use, a number of key requirements for the functioning of the software were not complied with by the Debtor, which ultimately made its uninterrupted operation impossible.
The Tashkent City Court and subsequently the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as the court of appeal and cassation instances, concluded that the Client's claim for termination of the Development Agreement and the Licence Agreement and recovery from the Debtor of the amount of the licence fee for the time of non-use of the software in the future 48 calendar years ( after deducting two years) in the amount of more than USD 200,000 was justified and subject to satisfaction.
Recognition and enforcement in Belarus
The Economic Court of Minsk concluded that there were no grounds for refusal to recognise and enforce the disputes established by the Agreement on the Procedure for Settlement of Disputes Related to Economic Activities concluded in Kiev on 20 March 1992 (Kiev Agreement) and the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Belarus.
As a result, the Court recognized and enforced in Belarus the Decision of the Tashkent City Court in the amount of more than USD 200,000, and recovered from the Debtor in favor of the Client the court costs of the case.
REVERA Comment
As is known, winning a dispute in a court in a foreign country often requires subsequent actions to recognise and enforce a foreign court judgment in the location of the debtor or its property.
Currently, the simplified procedure for the enforcement of foreign judgements in the Republic of Belarus applies only to decisions of state arbitration courts of the Russian Federation and, contrary, decisions of Belarusian economic courts are enforced in the Russian Federation under a simplified procedure.
In other cases, decisions of foreign courts in Belarus and decisions of Belarusian courts abroad are subject to enforcement only after the state court, where recognition and enforcement is sought, issues the decision on recognition and enforcement. Foreign court decisions are recognised in Belarus if provided for by the relevant international treaty or on the basis of the principle of reciprocity.
Thus, the Republic of Belarus is a party to the following agreements, which, among other things, determine the procedure for the recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions in Belarus:
- -bilateral international agreements on legal assistance, in particular with Lithuania, China, Latvia, Poland, Vietnam, Iran, Bulgaria, Serbia, etc., as well as those bilateral treaties of the USSR in respect of which the Republic of Belarus has recognised legal succession;
- multilateral international agreements, in particular the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters, concluded in Minsk on 22 January 1993 and the Protocol to the Convention of 28 March 1997, the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters, concluded in Chisinau on 7 October 2002, the Kiev Agreement of 1992.
REVERA lawyers will be pleased to assist in recognition and enforcement of both foreign court decisions in Belarus and decisions of Belarusian courts abroad.
