The Court of Appeal annulled the judgment of the Commercial Court, according to which the state was obliged to pay 4.000.000 million euros to the company "Univerzal Monte" with default interest from February 1, 2022.
Thus, the Commercial Court will once again have to decide the dispute that this private company initiated against the state due to the construction of the Meljine-Petijevići road in Herceg Novi, as well as the state's counterclaim.
This is written in the decision made on December 23 by the panel of the Court of Appeal, which consists of Danijela Vukčević, Dijana Radulović i Mirjana Vlahović.
"The judgment of the Commercial Court from November 1 is annulled in paragraphs one, three and four, and in that part the case is returned to the first-instance court for a retrial", it is written in the decision of the Appellate Court, which "Vijesti" had access to.
At the beginning of November, the Commercial Court partially accepted the lawsuit of Universal Monte and obliged the state to pay them 4.000.000 million euros with default interest. The court then rejected as unfounded the request for the payment of VAT in the amount of 840.000 euros, which this company demanded in a lawsuit, and it was also rejected as an illegal counterclaim by the state, which sought to establish that the agreement on the termination of the construction agreement was null and void. operation and transfer (BOT) for the Meljine-Petijevići road.
There was a possibility of appealing such a decision to the Court of Appeal, which was then submitted by the protector of the property and legal interests of the state. Bojana Cirovic. She proposed to change the judgment and reject the lawsuit, to accept the counterclaim or to cancel the decision and send the case back for a new decision.
"Univerzal Monte" contested this appeal and requested that it be rejected as unfounded.
In the decision of the Appellate Court, it is written that the Commercial Court rendered its verdict in violation of the Law on Civil Procedure, that is, that someone who could not be a party or was not represented by an authorized person participated in the proceedings. It is stated that the counterclaim of the state, which requested the nullity of the BOT, was rejected because the Municipality of Herceg Novi was not included in the appeal, although it is part of that agreement.
"The court was obliged to invite the defendant, before passing the decision on the rejection of the counterclaim, to mark the Municipality of Herceg Novi as one of the signatories of the agreement, which the court failed to do. Until these deficiencies are eliminated, there is a significant violation of the provisions of civil procedure from the Law on Civil Procedure, which constitutes a reason for termination. The subject of the lawsuit is the fulfillment of the defendant's contractual obligation from the BOT Road Termination Agreement, in which it is stated that the source of the obligation is the Termination Agreement (and not the causing of damage), for which reason the decision on the lawsuit is related to the decision on the counterclaim, including in part to which the lawsuit was accepted, the verdict had to be annulled", the decision reads.
Contract with the company "Univerzal Monte", behind which stands a Serbian businessman Vuk Hamovic, which built the Meljine-Petijevići road in 2008 under an arrangement based on which it was supposed to use it for 20 years and return it to the ownership of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, was terminated by agreement on May 7, 2021, by the Government of the Prime Minister Zdravka Krivokapića, after which the toll on this section stopped being collected.
The government then tasked the Ministry of Finance to, according to the agreement, provide four million euros in the budget for the following year for the payment of compensation to "Univerzal Monte". That ministry, which was managed by the then current prime minister Milojko Spajic it didn't work. Instead, at the last session of the former Government in April 2022, a conclusion was reached that this money should be paid from the budget reserve.
That obligation of the Government Dritan Abazović did not perform, but forwarded the documentation related to this business to the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), while "Universal Monte" initiated a lawsuit against the state demanding the payment of four million plus VAT. The state responded with a counterclaim seeking annulment of the agreement. The outcome of this dispute is also monitored by the SDT, which told "Vijesta" at the beginning of last year that they are monitoring the litigation in the Commercial Court, because the outcome will be important for the prosecutor's decision.
On January 19 last year, Spajić said on the show "Nachisto" that no one called him from the Prosecutor's Office and that he was looking at the state interest in relation to this decision and that he can't wait for the Prosecutor's Office or someone else to come up with an argument against his.
The company "Univerzal Monte" told "Vijesta" at the beginning of this year that if they do not win this dispute against the state in the Commercial Court, they will continue the dispute before international instances, which will additionally cost millions of euros in interest.
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