Take note, life is getting exciting, because SEB Bank is beginning to lose its comfortable position! Although this small victory is nothing next to the amounts that SEB will probably have to pay Grove in the next few years, it is a very important step!
Grove Invest, who used to be engaged in plywood and furniture production and is now developing the Luther residential area in Tallinn, achieved the first final victory in its court battle against the SEB Group, because the judgement made by the circuit court, which ordered AS SEB Pank to pay 64,900 kroons in legal costs for filing an unfounded and dismissed bankruptcy petition against OÜ Grove Invest in summer 2009, entered into force. The biggest claim for damages filed by Grove Invest against the SEB Group amounts to 1.49 billion kroons and will be heard in court probably in September or October.
‘We are glad that we've finally achieved our first victory against the SEB Group in court after going through all three court instances,’ said chairman of the Supervisory Board of Grove Invest OÜ Natalia Levina. ‘I believe that the bank will take us more seriously in the future and not try to shun responsibility simply because it's bigger and stronger, and hoping that nobody wants to go to court against them.’
Natalia Levina explains that the court case in question goes back to 2008, when Grove Invest had to apply for bankruptcy of its plywood factory in Kohila (Baltic Panel Group OÜ) due to SEB's failure to act when necessary. ‘SEB Bank refused to admit that it was at fault and tried to destroy us with all kinds of litigation, which included attempts to have Grove Invest declared bankrupt,’ said Levina. ‘Although the court ruled back in 2009 that the bank had no grounds for filing a bankruptcy petition against Grove Invest, it still refused to pay the legal costs it was ordered to pay by the court and kept disputing them for as long as possible. The case has now gone through courts of all instances and SEB must pay us 64,900 kroons.
Natalia Levina noted that several cases of Grove Invest, Baltic Panel Group and persons related to these companies against the SEB Group are still being resolved in court, and the largest of these is the claim for circa 1.5 billion kroons plus default interest filed against SEB in February this year. Levina explains that all of this litigation results from the fact that in 2008, SEB caused the bankruptcy of the modern plywood factory in Kohila, which cost 500 million kroons to build and employed 150 people. Grove Invest OÜ is represented in court by attorneys-at-law Erki Kergandberg and Elmer Muna from Law Firm Tark & Co, and attorney-at-law Arne Ots from Law Firm Raidla Lejins & Norcous
Neljas.ee 05.07.2010
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