The Supreme Court Again Reminded the Participants in the Proceedings about the Consequences of Insulting Statements in Procedural Documents Submitted to Court

The court of appeal returned the appeal to the plaintiff because it contained an insulting statement addressed to the judge of the court of first instance, which contradicts the foundations (principles) of civil procedure and therefore constitutes an abuse by the applicant of his procedural rights.

The plaintiff, disagreeing with the decision of the court of appeal, filed a cassation appeal.

The Civil Cassation Court within the Supreme Court dismissed the cassation appeal and made the following legal conclusions.

A person cannot be unjustifiably deprived of the right to appeal a court decision, as this would be a violation of the right provided for in Art. 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Convention).

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has repeatedly pointed out that the right to a fair trial can be limited by the state only if this restriction does not harm the very essence of the right.

Respect for honor and dignity, equality of all participants in the trial before the law and the court and the inadmissibility of abuse of procedural rights are referred to the basic foundations (principles) of civil procedure (paras 2 and 11, part 3, Article 2 of the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine).

Participants in the case are obliged to show respect to the court and to other participants in the legal process (para. 1, part 2 of Article 43 of the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine).

In accordance with part 1 of Art. 44 of the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine, the participants in the legal process and their representatives must exercise their procedural rights in good faith; abuse of procedural rights is not allowed.

According to the content of part 2 of this article, the list of actions that are contrary to the task of civil proceedings and which, depending on the specific circumstances, the court may recognize as an abuse of procedural rights, is not exhaustive.

The Supreme Court pointed out that the ECtHR, applying sub-paragraph «a», para. 3 of Art. 35 of the Convention, declares inadmissible any individual application submitted under Article 34 if it considers that the application constitutes an abuse of the right to submit it. For example, the ECtHR establishes an abuse of the right to file an application when an applicant, in the course of communication with the court, makes insulting, threatening or provocative statements against the respondent government, its representative, authorities of the respondent state, against the ECtHR, its judges, the Secretariat or employees.

The court of appeal correctly found that the complaint contained insulting remarks about the judge of the city district court, which did not correspond to the business style used in official communication, the complaint went beyond normal, correct and legitimate criticism, which was unacceptable. Such actions constitute contempt of court, and the filing of such an appeal is an abuse by the applicant of his procedural right, a failure to fulfill the obligation to abide by the task of civil proceedings, which is the applicant's obligation under part 2 of Art. 2 of the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine.

Resolution of the Supreme Court of June 29, 2022, in case No. 274/4944/20 (proceedings No. 61-393св22) – https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/105167749.

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