The Constitutional Court is to examine the application submitted by customers of VTB Armenia Bank
12:33, March 24, 2018 | News, Own news | Right to Property
Under the decision of March 12, 2018, the RA Constitutional Court accepted for examination the application filed by Armine Atoyan, who is a customer of VTB Armenia Bank, and her guarantors. The application referred to determining the compliance of Article 887 (2) of the credit agreement with the RA Constitution. The application is to be examined under a written procedure.
On February 7, 2018 HCA Vanadzor advocate Syuzanna Soghomonyan, who is A. Atoyan and her guarantors’ representative, filed an application with the RA Constitutional Court.
Yet in 2013 a credit agreement and guarantee agreements were concluded between the applicants and VTB Armenia Bank. Those agreements set norms on non-performance of the obligations undertaken pursuant to the contracts.
When concluding the agreements, the bank made use of the provisions established under Article 887 (2) of the RA Civil Code and set a 73% interest rate for an overdue loan and liability measures for breaching the obligations undertaken pursuant to the credit agreement.
In the application submitted to the Constitutional Court, S. Soghomonyan, the representative of the bank customers, mentioned that Article 887 (2) of the RA Civil Code contradicts Article 60 of the RA Constitution as it deprives persons of the right to freely own, dispose of the property belonging to them and gives the opportunity for credit agreements to impose for non-performance of obligations penalties that violate the rights and legitimate interests of the other party to the contract, leading to adverse consequences for the latter.
In the framework of the examination of the claim submitted by VTB Bank Armenia for collecting the outstanding amount, S. Soghomonyan, the representative of the borrowers, submitted a counterclaim to the Court of General Jurisdiction of Lori Province on the basis of the aforementioned and other problematic points of the credit agreement concluded with the bank. However, the court rejected it and upheld the claim of the bank on November 11, 2016.
The Court of Appeal left unchanged the decision passed by the lower instance court, and the Court of Cassation did not start proceedings on the basis of the bank customers’ cassation appeal.
The RA Constitutional Court is to examine the application on June 12, 2018.