After 12 years of litigation, 3 retrials and 4 judgments in higher appeal, including a change of venue, RTPR Allen & Overy has irrevocably won, before the High Court of Cassation and Justice, a real estate litigation based on Law no. 10/2001, whereby it has obtained the dismissal of the court action seeking for restitution in kind of the land whereby one of the Profi stores in Cluj-Napoca is located.

 The complexity of the litigation was determined both from a perspective of civil procedure related issues (in the context of administrating three topographical expert reports which addressed a series of technical issues, intervention requests/change of venue application, retrials) as well as from the merits perspective, in relation to which it was necessary to prove that in our case there are applicable derogatory provisions from the rule according to which the land is subject to restitution in kind.
The RTPR Allen & Overy team included Adriana Dobre, Senior Associate with 10 years of expertise in the field of litigations, who acted as coordinator of the project for more than six years and Ana Popa (Nedelcu), Associate, which has over 5 years of experience in the field of civil and administrative lawsuits.

Adriana Dobre has declared: “It was a difficult and complex mandate, considering that our intervention in the trial took place after the case had been negatively settled both in the first court and in the appeal and in the context where the expert report administrated at that time was not favourable to our client. Basically, we had to convince the courts of law in relation to the necessity to re-administrate the evidences, by taking into account also the objectives and documents proposed by us, and, afterwards, it was necessary to bring pertinent arguments in order to persuade the judge to share our opinion in relation to the legal issues at hand, respectively the meaning of functional occupation of the land and public utility establishments, in the sense regulated by Law no. 10/2001.”

Ana Popa added: “We are very proud that, after 12 years of trials and contradictory court rulings, we managed to obtain a favourable result for our client, who had confidence in granting us this difficult case but in the meantime full of satisfactions, mostly in the context where the relevant case law on this topic is not consistent”.

RTPR was founded in 2004 and has been working in association with the London based international law firm Allen & Overy LLP since 2008. RTPR Allen & Overy has 42 lawyers, including 5 partners: Costin Tărăcilă, Victor Pădurari, Alexandru Retevoescu, Mihai Ristici, Valentin Berea and Professor Lucian Mihai, Of counsel.
RTPR Allen & Overy’s main areas of activity are: financing, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, insolvency and restructuring, competition, labour law, intellectual property law, litigation and arbitration, and providing advice across a range of business sectors including energy, telecommunications, finance, real estate and the pharmaceutical industry.

Selected litigation cases in which RTPR Allen & Overy have been recently involved are set out below:
• successfully represented the National Bank of Romania before the High Court of Cassation and Justice in relation to a dispute with the ultimate shareholder of Banca Carpatica.
• successfully represented a reputed international bank in a commercial dispute whereby the client is being sued for an alleged receivable in amount of USD 370 million.
• successfully represented Industrial Engineering and Contracting NV within a complex tax litigation whereby VAT in amount of approximately EUR 1 million has been reimbursed to the client.
• Aegon Societate de Administrare a unui Fond de Pensii Administrat Privat S.A., manager of mandatory private pension funds (pillar II), in the lawsuit for the annulment of the decision of the Competition Council under which the company was sanctioned along with other managing companies of mandatory private pension funds (Pillar II) for an alleged allocation of customers. The fine imposed on Aegon was reduced with over 80%.
• MOL Romania in court proceedings against the decision of the Romanian Competition Council by which all six major oil companies active in Romania were fined for an alleged cartel concerning the withdrawal from the market of a fuel type in a case with total fines exceeding EUR 200 million. The court has irrevocably ruled for the partial annulment of the decision and the substantial reduction of the fine.
• Profi Rom Food in court proceedings against the decision of the Romanian Competition Council fining a vertical price fixing agreement. The fine has been irrevocably reduced by the High Court of Cassation and Justice with 75%.

Note to the editors:
1. Allen & Overy is an international legal practice with approximately 5,400 staff, including some 554 partners, working in 44 major cities worldwide.
2. RTPR was incorporated in 2004 and has been working in association with Allen & Overy since 2008. RTPR Allen & Overy has a team of 45 lawyers, including 5 partners: Costin Tărăcilă, Victor Pădurari, Alexandru Retevoescu, Mihai Ristici, Valentin Berea and also Prof Dr Lucian Mihai, Of counsel.
3. In this press release, “Allen & Overy” means Allen & Overy LLP and/or its affiliated undertakings.
4. In this press release, “RTPR Allen & Overy” means Radu Tărăcilă Pădurari Retevoescu SCA in association with Allen & Overy LLP.
5. Allen & Overy has been operating in the CEE region since 1991, when its first office opened in Warsaw. Since then, it has expanded its operations to include Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava and Moscow, all of which are renowned in the market for top quality legal advice combined with local commercial understanding, as well as for their integrity and their pro-active approach to matters. Additionally, Allen & Overy signed an exclusive association with the leading full-service Romanian law firm Radu Tărăcilă Pădurari Retevoescu SCA (RTPR), effective from July 2008, expanding the number of CEE offices in which we are able to provide local law advice to six.