Bankruptcy Disputes

Point of argument

To invalidate the financial analysis of the debtor and have the opportunity to open a liquidation procedure.

Plaintiff’s case

In 2015, a monitoring procedure was introduced for the debtor company and a temporary manager was appointed. One of the founders of the debtor organization –the Applicant filed a lawsuit in 2017, demanding to re-examine and prove that the bankruptcy of the company could not be considered premeditated.  The Applicant explained in court that the company's accounting documents were confiscated and were in a criminal case, therefore, it was impossible to conduct a reliable financial analysis and open a liquidation procedure. Therefore, the conclusion of the temporary administrator about the presence / absence of signs of insolvency was illegal. The Applicant asked to appoint an examination of the financial analysis of the debtor, assigning the responsibility for the procedure to the expert organization proposed by the Applicant. The Applicant also explained that he would bear the expenses. The court asked the Plaintiff to take the documents from the criminal case and hand them over to the new manager of the debtor company for evaluation.  Later on, the temporary manager did not receive the documents. The Plaintiff did not appear in the next court session.

Defence

In 2017, the temporary manager of the debtor company was removed from office and a new specialist was appointed. At the court hearing, he was against the examination, explaining his position by the fact that neither the creditor-applicant nor the preceding temporary manager had  received the accounting documents from the criminal case. He resisted to the examination of the valuation of property, based on the provisions of the law on bankruptcy (the responsibility was laid upon the temporary manager). For further consideration of the case, the court charged the new temporary manager with the assessment of property (documents from the applicant were not received).

Problem solution stages

• case analysis;
• preparation and filing of the legal objection to court.

Court judgement

Assisted by lawyers from the legal bureau, the temporary manager convinced the court that there were no grounds for invalidating the debtor’s financial analysis and obstacles for opening a liquidation procedure. Thus, the court ruled to dismiss the creditor’s application, and open a liquidation procedure against the debtor’s property.