A specialized inter-district economic court in the Abai Region has recognized and enforced a ruling by the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region ordering a limited liability partnership to pay 47,000 euros, equivalent to 25 million tenge, according to infohub.kz.
According to the official Telegram channel of the Abai Region courts, the specialized inter-district economic court considered an application to recognize and enforce in the Republic of Kazakhstan a ruling by the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region.
According to case materials, the limited liability company filed an application for compulsory enforcement of the foreign arbitration court's ruling to recover 47,000 euros from the limited liability partnership, as well as state duty costs.
The Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region's ruling entered into legal force, but the debtor did not comply voluntarily.
A representative of the claimant asked the court to grant the application, noting that the debtor had been properly notified of the proceedings in the Arbitration Court and that the ruling had entered into legal force.
In support of its position, a representative of the limited liability partnership cited proper notification of the time and place of the proceedings, as well as an unclear imprint on the copy of the ruling and the absence of a separate certificate confirming that the ruling had entered into legal force.
In issuing its ruling, the court took into account that the claimant had submitted the necessary documents, namely a duly certified copy of the ruling, a document confirming its entry into legal force, evidence of notification of the other party about the proceedings, and an enforcement document.
In considering the application, the court was guided by Articles 501–503 of the Civil Procedure Code on the recognition, enforcement, and compulsory enforcement of foreign court and foreign arbitration rulings.
Since enforcement of a judicial act in the Republic of Kazakhstan is carried out in the national currency, the amounts recovered by the foreign arbitration were converted into tenge at the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan exchange rate on the day the application was considered, meaning the debt amounted to 25 million tenge.
The court explained that the state duty paid by the claimant when applying to the court of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the issuance of an enforcement writ is an expense related to initiating the procedure for recognizing and enforcing a foreign arbitration ruling and is not part of the amounts awarded by the foreign arbitration itself. Accordingly, the court refused to recover this amount from the defendant.
The specialized inter-district economic court recognized and enforced in the Republic of Kazakhstan the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region's ruling to recover 25 million tenge from the limited liability partnership, as well as state duty costs of 890,000 tenge.
The Abai Region court left the first-instance court's ruling unchanged and dismissed the private appeal.
The appellate instance explained that, in accordance with the Agreement on the Procedure for Resolving Disputes Related to the Conduct of Economic Activities of March 20, 1992, concluded for the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, final rulings of competent courts are mutually recognized and enforced.
The appellate court noted that, when considering applications for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration rulings, the court does not examine the dispute on its merits or establish the validity of the claims. The court's task is to verify whether the legal grounds for recognizing and enforcing the relevant ruling exist or do not exist.