The Commercial Court in Zagreb Rejected the Lawsuit of Belgrade’s Jugobanka

The High Commercial Court confirmed the ruling of the Commercial Court in Zagreb, which rejected the lawsuit of Belgrade’s Jugobanka in bankruptcy, demanding that Croatia pay it compensation of 108.5 million kuna for real estate, along with interest, the State Attorney’s Office (DORH) reported on Thursday.

The final ruling dismissed Jugobanka’s claim for compensation from the state for real estate in Croatia that it once used as unfounded, thus “this litigation has been definitively concluded,” DORH reported on its website.

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Jugobanka argued that its right to compensation arises from Annex G of the Agreement on Succession Issues and that in this specific case, the international Agreement on Succession Issues from May 25, 2001, should be applied, which has legal force above laws and subordinate acts.

– The Commercial Court in Zagreb, in its ruling, rejected the plaintiff’s claim and ordered him to compensate the Republic of Croatia for the incurred litigation costs in the amount of 301,000 kuna, as it fully accepted the claims of the County State Attorney’s Office in Zagreb, which are in accordance with established judicial practice in identical cases, according to which Annex G only stipulates the fundamental principles on which succession issues regarding private property and acquired rights of individuals and legal entities are based, and for whose application additional bilateral agreements should be concluded between the contracting parties, DORH states.

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They add that the court also referred to the Law on the Confirmation of the Agreement on the Normalization of Relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to the decision of the Constitutional Court, which established that with the entry into force of the Agreement on the Normalization of Relations, the legal effects related to the takeover of assets of certain legal entities on the territory of the Republic of Croatia, which arose with the entry into force of the Regulation on the Prohibition of Disposal, were not annulled.

– By this Agreement, the contracting parties did not expressly assume the obligation to return those assets, but established the principle of equal legal protection of the property of individuals and legal entities that have their seat in the territory of the other contracting party, and this Agreement is only the basis for concluding further agreements between the contracting parties regarding the realization of the right to compensation for destroyed, damaged, or lost property, DORH announced.