The court of appeal has no authority to close appeal proceedings as wrongly opened – SC GC

Where, after the opening of appeal proceedings and the renewal of the time limit for filing an appeal, the court establishes that the procedural time limit was renewed on the basis of inaccurate (false) information provided by the applicant (in particular, regarding the date on which a copy of the appealed decision was received), the court of appeal may consider this an abuse of procedural rights under Part 2 of Article 44 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine.

This conclusion was reached by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court.

In the case at hand, the claimant filed a lawsuit seeking to remove obstacles to communicating with his children, while the respondent filed a claim to deprive the claimant of parental rights. By its decision, the court partially upheld the father’s claim and fully dismissed the respondent’s claim.

The respondent submitted an appeal together with a motion to renew the time limit for appeal, arguing, in particular, the date on which she had received a copy of the challenged court decision. The Court of Appeal renewed the time limit for filing the appeal and opened appeal proceedings, later scheduling the case for a hearing.

Subsequently, the Court of Appeal closed the appeal proceedings, having found that the reasons for missing the deadline - linked to the stated date of receiving the court decision - were not justified, and the respondent had provided no other grounds for renewal.

Upon reviewing the decisions in the case, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court noted that Article 362 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine sets out the list of grounds for closing appeal proceedings. However, this provision does not allow for closing appeal proceedings on the ground that they were opened erroneously.

An unjustified renewal of the time limit for filing an appeal is an independent ground for overturning both the appealed decision of the Court of Appeal on the merits and the ruling of the Court of Appeal renewing the time limit and opening the appeal proceedings.

At the same time, if, after the opening of appeal proceedings - done in the absence of the case file - it is subsequently established that the time limit for appeal should not have been renewed, particularly because the reasons given by the applicant were not valid, and the applicant's receipt of a copy of the appealed court decision for the first time on the day specified by him/her was not confirmed and refuted by the case file received by the court after the opening of the proceedings and their request from the first instance court, the appellate court may recognise this as an abuse of procedural rights under part 2 of Article 44 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine.

Therefore, the conclusion of the Court of Appeal that grounds existed to close the appeal proceedings in this case is incorrect.

Link to the resolution of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of 10 September 2025 in case No. 601/485/23 – https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/130793820.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.