Lawyers from Pepeliaev Group’s Siberian Office safeguarded our client’s interests in a major dispute with the prosecutor’s office for the environment

A team from our Siberian Office represented the interests of a large Siberian mining company in the court of appeal. Within the framework of the dispute, the prosecutor’s office for the environment demanded that RUB 827 million be collected from the client in connection with the production of coal on an agricultural land plot.

The company insisted that it was producing coal on lawful grounds under a licence and a lease agreement, that it had an approved plan for the remediation of the land and that it had undertaken every effort possible to convert the land plot from agricultural into industrial land. However, for reasons beyond the client’s control which owed to the fact that the municipality did not have any land-use planning scheme in place, the process had dragged on for 5 years.

Thanks to the efforts of our lawyers, the court of appeal held that these arguments were well-grounded and fully repealed the decision of the first-level court. The court also dismissed the claims of the prosecutor’s office.

The high standards of our lawyers' professionalism as well as their deep insights into environmental and land legislation helped to protect the client’s rights in a complicated lawsuit.