On 11 February 2020, Ukraine’s Supreme Court issued Resolution in case No. 0940/26524/19, (the “Resolution”) ruling that a failure by a public authority to issue a decision in favour of the applicant where the applicant complied with all legislative requirements can be challenged in court where the court may oblige the state authority to issue a decision in favour of the applicant.

The claimant in this case applied to a local regional council for a mining allotment, but was rejected without receiving any specific reasons for the rejection.

The claimant then challenged this rejection in the Ukrainian administrative courts and eventually obtained a judgement obliging the regional council to issue the decision granting the claimant the mining allotment. The Supreme Court upheld this judgement.

Specifically, the Supreme Court based its decision on the claimant’s compliance with the legislative requirements for obtaining a mining allotment when submitting respective application to the regional council and the regional council's failure to provide reasoning for the application's rejection.

The Resolution represents a positive trend in Ukrainian court practice where courts express willingness to remedy unjustified refusals by public authorities to grant to the compliant legal entities and individuals the benefits envisaged by law.

The Supreme Court ruled in the above case that obliging respective authorities to adopt the decision favourable to such entities or individuals is an appropriate remedy against such actions by authorities.

For more information on this decision, contact your regular CMS advisor or local CMS experts: Olexander Martinenko, Olga Shenk, Maria Orlyk, Anna Pogrebna,

Source: Resolution of the Supreme Court represented by a panel of judges of the Administrative Cassation Court dated 11 February 2020 in case 0940/26524/19 (in Ukrainian).

Authors:

Olexander Martinenko, Senior Partner, olexander.martinenko@cms-cmno.com

Olga Shenk, Counsel, olga.shenk@cms-cmno.com

Vladyslav Kurylko, Associate, vladyslav.kurylko@cms-cmno.com

Olga Stetsenko, Lawyer, olga.stetsenko@cms-cmno.com

Maria Orlyk, Partner, maira.orlyk@cms-rrh.com

Anna Pogrebna, Partner, anna.pogrebna@cms-rrh.com

Oleksandr Protsiuk, Counsel, olexandr.protsiuk@cms-rrh.com

Oleksandra Prysiazhniuk, oleksandra.prysiazhniuk@cms-rrh.com