The right to appeal a separate court ruling arises only for those persons for whom the separate ruling generates legally significant consequences and directly affects or may affect their rights, freedoms, and/or interests – SC GC

The mere fact that a person participates in a case and is granted the status of a party to the proceedings does not automatically grant them the right to appeal a separate ruling issued by the court during the consideration of the case. The right to appeal a separate ruling in appellate or cassation proceedings belongs only to those persons (parties to the proceedings or persons who did not participate in the case) for whom the separate ruling generates legally significant consequences and directly affects or may affect their rights, freedoms, and/or interests, i.e., it concerns them.

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

According to the circumstances of the case, the claimant filed a lawsuit seeking to cancel a resolution imposing an administrative penalty and to close the administrative offence proceedings. The court of first instance dismissed the claim and simultaneously issued a separate ruling concerning the lawyer who represented the claimant’s interests.

The claimant disagreed with the separate ruling and appealed it to the appellate court. The appellate court initially opened appellate proceedings but later decided to close them. This decision was justified by the fact that the contested separate ruling directly concerned the claimant’s lawyer, and therefore only he had the right to appeal it, in accordance with the provisions of Part 7 of Article 249 of the Code of Administrative Proceedings of Ukraine.

When considering this case, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court noted that a separate ruling is a special type of court decision which, although issued during the judicial examination of a specific case, does not directly relate to the resolution of the dispute in that case and does not affect the final outcome of its resolution. In such circumstances, the separate ruling affects public relations autonomously from the court decision that resolved the dispute and does not always concern the rights, obligations, or interests of the parties to that dispute.

In turn, Part 7 of Article 249 of the Code of Administrative Proceedings of Ukraine (Part 9 of Article 262 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, Part 9 of Article 246 of the Commercial Procedure Code of Ukraine) establishes a special rule for a separate ruling as a special type of court decision, according to which only the persons whom it concerns have the right to appeal it.

The mere fact that a person participates in the case and is granted the status of a party to the proceedings within the meaning of Article 42 of the Code of Administrative Proceedings of Ukraine does not automatically grant them the right to appeal a separate ruling issued by the court during the consideration of the case. This right belongs precisely to those persons (parties to the proceedings or persons who did not participate in the case) for whom the separate ruling generates legally significant consequences and directly affects or may affect their rights, freedoms, and/or interests.

In this case, having analysed the content of the contested separate ruling, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court noted that it concerned the assessment of actions performed by the claimant’s representative and in no way affected the rights, freedoms, or interests of the claimant herself.

Accordingly, the appellate court did not commit any misapplication of substantive law norms or violation of procedural law norms when issuing the ruling to close the appellate proceedings in this case.

Resolution of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court dated 21 January 2026 in case No. 490/10876/23 – https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/133708736.

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.