The company "Beppler & Jacobson Montenegro", the owner of the hotel "Avala" in Budva, filed a criminal complaint against the judge of the Commercial Court Nataša Sekulić, because she delayed the collection of 352 thousand euros owed to the hotel company "Casino Avala". This is stated in the statement signed by the "Prisma" agency, in charge of public relations "Beppler & Jacobson".
"Judge Nataša Sekulić again made a decision to postpone the implementation of the final and enforceable judgment in favor of 'Casino Avala', where this time he is obliged to pay the owners of the Budva hotel 'Avala', the company 'Beppler & Jacobson Montenegro', 352 thousand euros. The postponement without verification is explained by the statement that "there have been no changes" since 2018, when the execution of the same judgment was also illegally delayed the previous time, although since then a number of judgments of the highest court instances in the country have been passed, which shed a clear light on this case. The Prosecutor's Office, the Minister of Justice Vladimir Leposavic, the presidents of the courts, the Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic and the National Council for the Fight against Corruption at a high level were informed about the disputed decision," the announcement states.
In the company "Beppler & Jacobson Montenegro" and their legal team, as it is added, they were taken aback.
"Better to say, shocked, by yet another impending scandal, again under the direction of a strange mechanism, again with the signature of Judge Nataša Sekulić of the Commercial Court. Although the government in Montenegro is changing, some things (at least for now) remain the same - if someone does not want to enforce a legally binding judgment and possibly has a previously hidden influence - simply submit a request for postponement for any reason and the matter is resolved for several years . This is how the strange mechanism that has become a practice in Montenegro in recent years could be briefly explained, when debtors who do not want to comply with the judgments of all court instances avoid justice in a perfidious way, using the parts of the Commercial Court. The media have already written about earlier cases when the implementation of legally binding judgments is postponed in a very controversial way. On February 16, Judge Sekulić issued a decision by which she postponed the execution of the legally binding and enforced judgment of the Commercial Court from May 16, 2017, according to which the company 'Casino Avala' was obliged to pay the amount of 352 thousand euros to the company 'Beppler & Jacobson Montenegro'," the hotel company points out.
As they state, Sekulić postponed the execution until the final conclusion of the other two cases of the same parties, "knowing (or should have known) that in this way she is postponing the execution for a period of at least 3 to 5 years and thereby completely rendering the judicial system of Montenegro meaningless."
"It is reasoned that the execution of the same judgment was already postponed in 2018, when the Court found that Casino Avala would suffer damage from the execution because there is a judgment in their favor in the dispute before the Basic Court in Kotor, according to which Casino Avala appeared with the meaningless allegation that Casino built a part of Hotel "Avala", and that there have been no changes since then. However, what Judge Sekulić overlooks is that the said judgment of the Basic Court in Kotor has meanwhile been annulled by the Higher Court in Podgorica, so it is completely unclear how the situation remained unchanged. Also, Judge Sekulić overlooks the fact that she herself already stated about the importance of the aforementioned verdict and the proceedings before the court in Kotor in another decision from November 15, 2018, which she signed between the same parties, however, in a completely opposite way. Judge Sekulić then correctly stated that 'the said first-instance judgment cannot affect the existence of a claim established by a legally binding and enforceable judgment, and the said judgment is not relevant for this proceeding, considering that in the execution procedure the court or any other authority does not have the possibility to discuss the facts of which have already been discussed in the executive document', they state in the announcement.
They emphasize "by chance or Sekulić interprets one and the same fact completely differently in the two decisions she made".
"It is up to the competent authorities to determine whether it is an accidental oversight, or whether there is something or someone above behind it. That is why requests were submitted for the disqualification of judge Nataša Sekulić in cases of 350 euros and over 13 million euros, and a criminal complaint was also filed against her. The owners of Hotel "Avala" have informed the highest state authorities, including the Minister of Justice Vladimir Leposavić, the presidents of all courts, the Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović and the National Council for the Fight against Corruption at a high level, as well as the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, about the latest actions of Judge Sekulić. in the announcement.
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