Musat & Asociatii won in court the cancellation of the forced execution in respect of the Sinaia Gondola Lift, which thus remains in the property of the Town of Sinaia.
“The Sinaia Gondola Lift remains in the town property, as it was only natural, its nature of public asset being incontestable. The touristic attraction was exclusively built from public money, and the final settlement of the file is a significant victory both for the local community and for the rest of the country”, said Gheorghe Buta, Deputy Managing Partner, Musat & Asociatii .
The inspiration of the team of attorneys, coordinated by Octavian Popescu – Partner, in persuading the court of law that a public asset cannot be subjected to forced execution proceedings, irrespective of its circumstance, was successful in convincing and also in fully clarifying the relevance of the arguments submitted.
“The legal matter subject to debate and which naturally formed the basis of the judgment rendered by the court of law referred to the illegality of the forced execution initiated without an enforceable deed against an asset that entered the public property of the Town of Sinaia in a legal manner. Forcing the limits of the leasing agreement is a legal concern occurring more and more often in the legal practice of recent years, the users being virtually compelled to tolerate blatant infringement of the obligations undertaken by financing entities in order to avoid forced execution abusively initiated by the leasing company”, stated Gheorghe Buta, Deputy Managing Partner, Musat & Asociatii .
This success means a first step towards normality, after a dispute that has lasted for more than one year, intended to stop the legal measures taken by Dunărea IFN in order to acquire the Sinaia Gondola Lift.
The Gondola Lift became the subject of a dispute between the Town of Sinaia and the leasing company Dunărea IFN SA, the financing entity for the project, after the local authority initiated a legal action against the leasing company as a result of the latter breaching its contractual obligations. Further to such endeavors, on October 1, 2011, Dunărea IFN S.A notified the termination of the leasing agreement and the initiation of the forced execution procedure against the operator of the Gondola Lift – Sinaia Urban Transport. At that time, Musat & Asociatii obtained the provisional stay of the forced execution, and the court decision was not subject to any means of appeal.
Musat & Asociatii also assisted Sinaia Town Hall upon the conclusion of the leasing agreement with Dunărea IFN SA, but also throughout the dispute, successfully closed, in relation to the ownership right over the Sinaia Casino.
With more than 35 litigation attorneys and having managed over 3000 files, the Dispute Resolution Department of Musat & Asociatii is one of the strongest on the legal market. The team deals with some of the most complex cases, among our most recent successes counting the favorable and irrevocable decision rendered in the case ThyssenKrupp vs. Metalimportexport (the value of the litigation exceeds USD 50 million), the longest trial ever conducted before the Romanian courts of law and maybe even in Europe, assisting one of the leading Romanian banks in an extensive series of disputes against a SIF in relation to the capital market, but also one of the top insurance companies in Romania, in several disputes with claimed indemnification of more than EUR 25 million. Furthermore, in administrative litigation matters, we emphasize the successful closing of a dispute having as its object the sanitation services in Bucharest, with financial claims of over EUR 400 million or the favorable solution rendered in the challenge procedure conducted before the Romanian National Council for Solving Complaints, in respect of the purchase of new land plots for the Bucharest underground network.
The relevant experience of Musat & Asociatii in the sector is also acknowledged at international level by the most reputed legal publishers – Legal 500, Chambers & Partners and PLC Which Lawyer? – which rank our law firm and its lawyers among the elite of the legal market.