ILF lawyers successfully defended Kharkiv Humanitarian University “National Ukrainian Academy” from the lessor’s unsubstantiated demands to terminate the lease contract and collect damages. The issue arose when the lessor made a claim that the university inflicted damage on the premises. Terminating the lease of the premises used exclusively for educational purposes threatened the university’s existence and the education of more than 1000 students.

In the course of two years the case went through three levels of jurisdiction. The Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine didn’t support the decisions of the previous courts to terminate the lease and collect damages, and sent the case for re-examination.

After re-examination at the court of first appearance, the claims were satisfied once again, despite the conclusions of the Supreme Economic Court. However, Kharkiv Appellate Economic Court ruled in favor of the university and students on 14 September 2016.

The main argument in favor of the lessee’s position was the absence of data on the state of the premises on the date the lease started and by the time it ended. With this information being impossible to corroborate, it cast doubt on the Plaintiff’s statements regarding the lessee’s involvement in damaging the premises.

The case was managed by ILF lawyer Boris Zamikula.