How to figure out what rights were transferred under an assignment agreement: review of the stance of the Russian Supreme Court
The Supreme Court published Ruling No. 5-KG23-92-K2 of October 10, 2023, in which it clarified that the enumeration in the assignment agreement of certain rights does not mean that the remaining rights have not been transferred to the assignee. The court indicated that the lower courts did not evaluate the arguments that the indication in the register of debtors of the amounts of the principal debt and overdue interest is just a specification by the parties to the assignment agreement of individual amounts of a person’s debt to the bank under the loan agreement at the time of concluding the assignment agreement (not a restriction which precludes other rights out of the assignment from being transferred to the assignee).
The lawyer of our Law firm, Ms Ekaterina Schmitt, in her commentary to the “Advokatskaya Gazeta” (Russian Advocacy Newspaper), noted that the stance of the Supreme Court is not new in its caselaw and essentially is in line with its earlier rulings dated August 23, 2022 No. 19-KG22-20-K5 and October 19, 2021 No. 19-KG21-20-K5. These rulings consistently state that the limitation on the scope of transferred rights must be unambiguously enshrined in the text of the assignment agreement.
Therefore, the parties to the agreement must directly exclude the transfer of the right to interest (penalty) accrued for the period after the conclusion of the assignment agreement, or otherwise provide that only claims limited to a specific time period are subject to such an assignment. Moreover, a simple reference in the agreement to the transfer of debt existing at the time of signing the assignment does not indicate that such restrictions have been established.
“Advokatskaya Gazeta” (Russian Advocacy Newspaper) is the official body of the Russian Federal Bar Association (published since 2007). The Newspaper’s publications are devoted to the most important legal topics, case law, as well as legal practice and issues of advocacy.
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