PRESS RELEASE: Majority shareholder of shopping mall 'Ukraina' demands that judges of capital's commercial court be held accountable
Kyiv, December 27, 2011. After numerous significant breaches of the norms of procedural law during legal proceedings and unfounded remedial orders, the majority shareholder of the shopping mall "Ukraina", the Swedish company Quinn Holdings Sweden AB (QHS) has filed complaints to the Highest Qualification Commission for Judges of Ukraine, requesting the opening of disciplinary investigations with respect to certain judges of Kyiv City Commercial Court. The majority shareholder’s petition contains numerous examples of such breaches during the hearings of the cases involving the shopping mall "Ukraina". In particular, in the lawsuits filed against the "Ukraina" mall by the minority shareholders, which have already been discussed in the media, the judges of the Kyiv City Commercial Court have opened the proceedings and issued remedial orders on the basis of applications by persons, who had no authority to act as representatives in the court hearings. By their orders the judges have forbidden the amendment of the state registry in accordance with the decisions of the general meetings of shareholders of the Mall, which made it impossible for the acting director of the mall to carry out his work. Notably, the opening of the proceedings and the issuing of the remedial orders would take only 1-2 days. It is also important to note that the shareholders-plaintiffs themselves had no idea that these applications were filed on their behalf. Even after the abovementioned shareholders-plaintiffs personally informed the court about this and submitted requests to annul the remedial orders, the judges have been postponing the deliberation of these cases for a long time. The remedial orders have still not been nullified, and it has already been over a 1.5 months. All decisions regarding remedial orders, which the judges had issued, have been based exclusively on the statements, which are not backed up by any appropriate evidence, which is unacceptable from the point of view of procedural legislation. Moreover, all abovementioned orders contradict the regulations, set forth by the legislation governing the application of interim relief. Particularly this concerns the proportionality of the remedial measures, non-interference in the commercial activities, correlation between the remedial measure and the subject of the suit, the obligatory nature of which has been stressed on numerous occasions by the Highest Commercial Court of Ukraine and the Supreme Court of Ukraine in their explications for the courts of lower instances. "We see in the acts of the judges of the Kyiv City Commercial Court blatant violations of P.1 Part 1 Art 83 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Judicial System and the Status of Judges". We have, therefore, submitted a request to open a disciplinary investigation, which, in our view, should result in a recommendation to the Highest Judicial Council of Ukraine with respect to the dismissal of these judges from their posts should there be sufficient evidence to substantiate it", said the legal representative of QHS. For additional information, contact: Oleksiy Syvak, Senior Advisor, CFC Consulting +38 (044) 492-75-99 or os@cfc.com.ua The press release has been issued on commercial terms. The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency is not responsible for its contents.