In a citizen’s bankruptcy case, a marriage contract surfaced, under the terms and conditions of which, in the event of dissolving the marriage at the discretion of the debtor, the title to ¾ of all the marital property of the spouses would transfer in favor of the wife. Based on preliminary estimates, such a deviation from the general rule established by family law could have resulted in damages to creditors amounting to RUB 1.5 billion.
KIAP was tasked with litigation in challenging the transaction and obtaining its invalidation. The complicating factor was the fact that the marriage contract was entered into 9 years prior to filing of the petition for invalidation of the transaction.
In the initial trial of the dispute, the courts of the first and appellate instances recognized the transaction as legitimate and dismissed the application. Meanwhile, KIAP’s associates managed to convince the court of cassation instance that this transaction should be treated under the provisions of Clause 2, Article 61.1 of the Bankruptcy Law as a conditional transaction. The judicial acts were overturned and the dispute was sent for re-examination.
As a result of the dispute examination, the transaction was recognized invalid, which made it possible to retain the debtor’s bankruptcy estate totaling approximately to RUB 1.5 billion.
Team members:
Ilya Ischuk, Daniil Zherdev, Anna Andreyeva