Vasil Kisil & Partners has successfully defended a leading Ukrainian state-owned mining company in eight complex arbitration proceedings for USD 22 million.
Strategic Significance and Distinctive Challenges
The disputes centred on eight raw material supply contracts, with the Austrian company seeking substantial damages for alleged lost profits due to the Ukrainian company's purported breach of contractual obligations. The cases were of paramount importance given the client's status as a key state-owned entity and the potential for significant financial implications.
Under the leadership of Vasil Kisil & Partners' partner Oleg Alyoshin, head of international arbitration practice, our legal team developed a defence strategy focused, inter alia, on the interpretation and application of the limitation of liability clause. We posited that this clause restricted liability to actual damages, thereby precluding claims for lost profits. A peculiar wording of that clause added to the challenge, and necessitated a nuanced understanding of contract law and wider commercial context.
Vasil Kisil & Partners' team of lawyers developed a comprehensive strategy for all eight arbitration proceedings, which included:
- Establishing the content of the contractual limitation of liability clause and proving the validity and applicability of such a clause
- Constructing robust arguments related to the application of complex doctrines such as venire contra factum proprium and contra proferentem
Outcome and Implications
As a result, in all proceedings, the tribunals fully dismissed the Austrian company's USD 22 million claims, affirming Vasil Kisil & Partners' interpretation of the liability clause.
The result reflects the importance of careful and nuanced reading of contractual provisions, highlighting how meticulous interpretation can significantly impact dispute outcomes. These rulings also underscore the critical role of limitation of liability clauses in risk allocation and financial protection within international contracts.
Vasil Kisil & Partners' strategy enabled the resolution of these disputes at an early stage of bifurcated proceedings, resulting in substantial time and cost savings for our client.
The legal team from Vasil Kisil & Partners that worked on the project: Partner and Head of International Arbitration Practice, Oleg Alyoshin; Senior Associate, Vsevolod Mazurenko; Associate, Yulia Adamovych; and Associate, Taisa Poetova.
For more details please contact Olga Shevchenko, PR Manager
Tel.: +380 67 358 47 82
E-mail: shevchenko@vkp.ua
About the Firm
Established in 1992, Vasil Kisil & Partners is a Ukrainian law firm that delivers integrated legal advice in banking & finance, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, antitrust, competition and trade, dispute resolution, public advocacy, tax law, energy and natural resources law, intellectual property law, labor and employment law, real estate and construction law, as well as PPP, concessions and infrastructure law. Vasil Kisil & Partners is a member and exclusively represents Ukraine in such international professional associations as TerraLex (160 law firms in 100 countries), Cathay Associates (40 high-profile law firms with over 500 headcount worldwide in 43 major cities and countries across Europe and Asia) and Ius Laboris (1700 labor and employment lawyers in 50 countries). Andriy Stelmashchuk is a managing partner of Vasil Kisil & Partners law firm.
