FBK Legal Wins at Court of Cassation in Case on Lease Contract Amendment by Email

FBK Legal’s lawyers have won at the court of cassation in a case on lease contract amendment by email.

In 2019, FBK Legal’s client leased restaurant space in a business centre. In 2020, the government passed Law No. 98-FZ that permitted lessees to terminate leases if the lessor refused to reduce lease payments. The client used the law to ask for a discount to lease payments and a unilateral termination right.

As a result of negotiations, the parties agreed on a supplementary agreement to the lease contract with required terms and conditions by email. However, the parties did not sign the original agreement. A year after, the lessor started to claim that emails had been sent by unauthorised persons using inappropriate email addresses, who did not have the right to enter into such agreements. The lessor underlined that there was no single signed document. 

The client filed a lawsuit with FBK Legal’s support. The lawyers managed to prove that the supplementary agreement had been concluded by email offer acceptance. The actual fulfilment of the agreement by the parties turned out to be a strong argument. The court of first instance ruled that the agreement had been concluded in the revision permitting the lessee (our client) to repudiate the contract. The court of appeal upheld the ruling. The court of cassation agreed with the position of FBK Legal’s lawyers and upheld the rulings of the lower-level courts.