Successfully defended a client in a precedent-setting environmental dispute

The practice’s team defended the interests of one of the biggest production enterprises of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), which specialises in the construction of motor roads and highways. The Republic’s Ministry of Industry and Geology filed a lawsuit to recover over RUB 40 million in damage from the client which was caused by the unauthorised use of subsoil resources.

Not only did our lawyers implement a complicated procedural strategy but they also coordinated the work of many of the experts involved in the project. In addition, further to the client’s instruction we assessed the prospects of challenging in the Russian Constitutional Court the provisions of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences which the courts used against the client.

The dispute was setting a precedent because the parties differently interpreted the application of the Rules for assessing damage caused to subsoil resources as established by the Russian Government’s Resolution No. 564 dated 4 July 2013. The greatest challenge of the project lies with the fact that the client’s position rests on a judicial decision which was adopted previously and in which the court asserted that the client had administrative liability lawfully imposed.  Nonetheless, the law and the standards of proof relating to such cases require not only that the fact should be established of the unlawful use of subsoil resources but that so should a number of other circumstances (such as the period of time during which minerals were extracted). The claimant, however, did not gather such evidence.

The issues of prejudicial effect and of the applicability, in general, of a court's conclusions in disputes involving administrative liability to cases over damage to the environment are of systemic importance for this category of cases.