Defense of a Car Dealer's Interests in Disputes with Dishonest Buyers.

Our client, one of the largest dealers of European cars in Russia, sold several vehicles to a plaintiff under a sales contract. Some time after the transaction, the buyer approached the court with a demand to declare the transaction null and void, claiming that the sales contract was not signed by the plaintiff, the cars were not transferred, and the funds were transferred under a contract for car maintenance services.

The situation was complicated by the fact that the buyer's signature on the documents was questionable, and the funds were transferred to the client with the payment purpose specified as 'payment for technical maintenance'. Despite this, we successfully defended our client's position in the case. We established that the plaintiff had approached several other dealers with similar claims and proved to the court that the true intent behind seeking to declare the transactions null and void was an attempt to invalidate the results of an external tax audit, which revealed a significant tax debt from a series of transactions with car dealers.

We strengthened the evidentiary base with requests for purchase and sales books from the tax authority and requests for copies of vehicle registration certificates from the State Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate, showing that the vehicles were owned by the plaintiff for some time. Additionally, we brought to the court's attention that our client had not signed any maintenance contract, and no work orders or acts were drawn up. The court agreed with the position that the transaction possessed all necessary characteristics to be considered concluded, and our client was a bona fide participant in civil legal relations. The appellate court upheld the first instance court's decision.