Major Assignments - Dispute Resolution

TRINITI advocates successfully represented National Oilwell Varco AS (NOV), a leading worldwide provider of equipment and components for oil and gas drilling and production, in a court dispute with Estonian companies OÜ Transmares and OÜ Palsteve, over the validity of a lien and the rights of possession of stored equipment at the Northern Port of Paldiski, incl the grant of preliminary injunctive relief by the court. The TRINITI legal team consisted of senior associate Klen Laus and partner Tõnis Tamme.

We defended the interests of our client AB Lietuvos Radijo ir Televizijos Centras Telecentras against Darnu Group regarding the EUR 6 m real estate sale transaction. The Supreme Court of Lithuania acknowledged that the transaction was valid. Congratulations to Kęstas Žičkus and the team, who were involved in this case only in the appeal stage and ensured the victory of the client in both courts.

This lawsuit shows that real estate developers take risk of the contracts with the third parties when purchasing real estate. In the present case, the dispute arose after the National Land Service refused to lease the state own plot of land to the purchasers. After this court practice, developers will require to either structure transactions appropriately by introducing safeguards or to assess the prospects of contracts with the third parties prior to the transaction.

Extreme meteorological conditions in agriculture can now be recognized as a force majeure situation. Such a decision was made by the Supreme Court of Lithuania in a case in which we represented a Lithuanian farmer against the buyer of agricultural products UAB Agrosfera.

And this is the first time in the country’s courts’ practice, when our firm’s Associate Partner Marius Tamošiūnas, Senior Associate Laimonas Stančikas and the team managed to prove that the farmer’s contract was not fulfilled due to unfavourable natural conditions, which were force majeure circumstances.

World climate change and the resulting extreme natural disasters do not bypass Lithuania. In the last few years, the country has repeatedly declared an emergency situation due to heavy rains or drought.

Until now, however, the prevailing view in agriculture has been that contract terms due to force majeure were a mere formality and it was not realistic for farmers to take advantage of these terms in the face of natural disasters. We are glad that the situation has changed and farmers have more legal opportunities to defend their interests.  

Consult with us if you are not sure about the conditions in your contracts.

Additional work in the construction sector is a very common situation. Unfortunately, it is not always resolved peacefully. We congratulate our client UAB TERMOLINK and the firm’s attorney at law Artūras Vaišvila and the team for achieving the victory. They managed to prove to the court that the general contractor must pay for additional works, the performance of which has been formalized by a unilateral act.

The court argued that it is the general contractor who takes the risk that all the necessary construction works will be included in the technical project and other construction normative documents. If it is established that the constructor has carried out works that were really necessary to achieve the right result, that the results of that work are being used, that no defects in the performance of those works have been proved, the general contractor shall pay for such works.  

TRINITI represented a foreign citizen client in obtaining a marriage permit for use within Estonia. In order to marry in Estonia, a person whose place of residence is in another country or who has resided in Estonia for less than six months immediately prior to submitting an application for marriage must submit a certificate confirming their legal capacity to contract a marriage, providing it to the Vital Statistics Department. In exceptional cases it is possible to apply for permission to marry through the courts if for a good reason a person is unable to present a certificate to confirm their legal capacity to contract a marriage. In this case, the client had several obstacles in terms of obtaining a certificate to confirm their legal capacity to contract a marriage from the country of which they were a citizen, including the fact that within the respective country there were restrictions in place in terms of people of different faiths being married. TRINITI assisted the client in applying for a marriage permit through the courts, and the courts issued the permit in just a week! The client was represented by TRINITI’s Ramil Pärt, who specialises in providing sworn statements, and his equally well-qualified assistant, Anni Prants.

Cases of honour and dignity are delicate, sensitive, and, in most cases, public. Firm’s partner Jurgita Judickienė together with the team recently defended the interests of our clients: the Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre “Telecentras” and its CEO Remigijus Šeris. Lawyers proved that the former president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation Valdas Sutkus got offended unreasonably.

Two years ago, in an article on www.15min.lt, Šeris told about some unpleasant encounters with Sutkus and his widely discussed words “daloj Šeris” (take away Šeris – in Russian). Sutkus applied to the court for insulting his honour and dignity, however, the Vilnius Regional Court acknowledged in its final ruling that all the statements expressed in the article correspond to reality and do not humiliate Sutkus’ honour and dignity. The court also ordered to reimburse all litigation costs incurred by both Šeris and the Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre. Congratulations on an honourable victory!

Please, read a detailed story (in Lithuanian) here.

We represented the restaurants’ group Fortas, who disagreed with the claim for damages from the insurance company. In one of the restaurants located in Vilnius entertainment and business center, the cold-water hose of the tap broke at night and water flooded both the rented restaurant and other premises of this center. The insurance company indemnified the building owner and other affected entities, but in a recourse, demanded our client to compensate for the insurance payments. 

Congratulations to Agnė Varnelienė and the team: the court completely rejected the insurance company’s claim. Our lawyers were able to persuade the court not to follow the usual case practice but to assess the balance of responsibilities between the tenant of the premises and their owner, who would be affected by the flooding, established in the lease agreement. Here is the case when a well-prepared lease agreement is very helpful!

TRINITI won the dispute against the National Land Service (NLS) over the termination of state land lease. This proves once again that in disputes with NLS over the lease of state land, it is possible to achieve positive results for tenants of state land. The interests of the clients were represented by TRINITI Partner and Attorney at law Agnė Ustinovičienė and the Senior Associate Gintarė Liegutė.

The legal firm, TRINITI, successfully represented the Estonian Performers Union in the Supreme Court during a precedent dispute which concerned the application of the Copyright Act. Read moreOn 27 November 2019, the entire composition of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court reached a groundbreaking decision in terms of clarifying the conditions under which the exception provided for in the Copyright Act extends to hobby schools, which allows phonograms to be used in the study process without any payment being made to performers and phonogram producers. The Supreme Court took the position that a registered hobby school may rely on the exception that has been provided for in the Copyright Act, which allows the use of phonograms in the study process without paying a remuneration to the performers and producers of phonograms. However, the claimant must comply with all of the requirements of copyright law, and the use of phonograms must not be in conflict with normal use, and should not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of rights holders. The Supreme Court upheld the appeal by the Estonian Performers Union, annulled the decision by the Tallinn Circuit Court, and sent it to the circuit court for reconsideration, primarily because the lower courts have not correctly established whether the use of phonograms in club training meets all the conditions for the application of the exception that has been provided by the Copyright Act.

We successfully represented a client in voiding a gratuitous contract worth millions. All courts agreed with our arguments that an intra-family gratuitous contract can be successfully voided. The courts also agreed that publicly denying the contract, filing baseless complaints and taking family disputes into the media all together give cause to void the contract. Our client was represented by attorney Villu Otsmann and lawyer Martin Järve of TRINITI.