Lawyers of the litigation department of the law firm Babiaczyk, Skrocki and Partners sp. k. are representing the firm’s client – a manufacturing company belonging to an international concern – in a dispute with the State Forests against the background of the settlement of bank guarantees. The value of the claims reaches PLN 1,000,000.
The canvas of the dispute is the long-term contracts for the sale of timber that the Client of Babiaczyk, Skrocki and partners sp.k concluded with the Regional Directorate of State Forests. Under these contracts, the Client undertook to receive certain volumes of timber according to an agreed schedule and to pay the price. The execution of the contracts was disrupted by the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which caused a break in global supply chains and thus a sudden and significant decrease in orders for the Firm’s Client’s products. This entailed a reduction in production and the subsequent need to cancel the receipt of some of the contracted raw material.
The contracts included a force majeure clause, which is undoubtedly a pandemic, but despite this, the Regional Directorate of State Forests decided to activate the bank guarantees provided by the Law Firm’s Client and collect from them more than PLN 750,000 in connection with the non-performance of the contracts.
In view of the refusal to return this sum as undue, the Law Firm is taking steps to enforce it through the courts, including seeking reimbursement of the costs caused by the action of the Regional Directorate of State Forests and compensation for the violation of the Client’s personal rights.