A large manufacturing company entered into a contract with a contractor for the construction, installation, and dismantling of a booth at the international exhibition PAP-FOR 2020, transferred an advance payment; however, due to coronavirus restrictions on mass events, the exhibition was moved to an online format, and the work on installing the booth was not required.
In the customer’s interests, we asked the contractor to return the money. They did not return them, arguing that, according to the contract, all funds received by them are not subject to return if the exhibition is canceled due to coronavirus restrictions.
In case A56-191/2022, we managed to convince the courts of first and appellate instances that the construction contract cannot provide for provisions allowing the contractor to keep the advance payment when it has not even started to fulfill the contract; this contradicts the essence of construction relations – payment for specific work performed, which, in turn, entails unjust enrichment on the part of the contractor.
At our request, the construction contract was terminated, and the entire amount of the previously paid advance was recovered from the contractor.
