On Wednesday, December 15, the General Meeting of Senators of the Department of Civil Cases of the Supreme Court (Senate) decided to explain how, in accordance with Section 195, Paragraph one of the Civil Procedure Law, interest is to be determined in money recovery cases. The General Meeting of Senators was convened by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Aigars Strupišs on the basis of Section 49.1, Paragraph one of the Law “On Judicial Power” and taking into account the request of Kurzeme and Zemgale Regional Courts.

The General Meeting of Senators of the Department of Civil Cases established that a different case law has been formed on the issue of determining the interest that the claimant is entitled to receive in case of money recovery for the period until the enforcement of the judgment, in accordance with Section 195, Paragraph one of the Civil Procedure Law. On the basis of the information provided by the regional courts, the General Meeting of Senators established a differing case law both as to whether the claimant should be entitled to interest on the total amount recovered by the judgment or only on the principal debt recovered by the judgment, as well as to whether the applicant's right to receive the abovementioned interest as a successful party is to be determined in the event that the default interest recovered by the judgment has already reached the amount of the principal debt.

In order to ensure the development of uniform case law, the senators of the Department of Civil Cases explained the objectives of the regulatory framework to be interpreted and acknowledged that, pending enforcement of the judgment, the party is entitled to interest not only on the principal debt which has not been repaid within the time-limit for voluntary enforcement of the judgment, but also on other payments due within that period, including sums recovered from ancillary claims, and the litigation costs recovered. Moreover, the right to receive the above interest is also determined if the amount of default interest recovered by the judgment has already reached the amount of the principal debt.

The senators emphasized that, by their legal nature, the interest provided for in Section 195, Paragraph one of the Civil Procedure Law is an entity of procedural law. It is functionally similar to default interest regulated by the Civil Law, therefore, when determining interest in accordance with Section 195, Paragraph one of the Civil Procedure Law, its increase, similar to the increase of default interest, stops when the amount of unpaid interest has reached the full amount recovered by judgment.

At the General Meeting, the senators acknowledged that the judgment recovering the amount of money does not create new rights, but the court, on the basis of substantive law, only establishes the right of a party to proceedings to the relevant amount of money. Such a judgment, in turn, becomes an additional ground for enforcing a party's claim.

The decision of the General Meeting of Senators of the Department of Civil Cases of the Senate in accordance with Section 49.1, Paragraph three of the Law “On Judicial Power” has been published on the website of the Supreme Court, available here.

 

Information prepared by

Dr. iur. Rihards Gulbis, Legal research counsel to Senate’s Department of Civil Cases