Court declines to consider claim against UOC priest from Ugrinov
Gorokhov District Court left without consideration the lawsuit of Volynoblenergo (regional electricity enterprise) against the clergyman of the UOC of Ugrinov village due to the plaintiff’s failure to appear.
Volynoblenergo intended through the court to terminate the contract on electricity supply to the house, in which the UOC protopriest Rostislav Sapozhnik lived until this property had been privatized by the UOC-KP community. The court decided not to consider the claim, since the representatives of the plaintiff did not appear at four consecutive sessions. This is reported by the correspondent of the UOJ.
The suit was filed in 2017. The power engineers substantiated it by "a significant change in the conditions the parties were guided with when concluding the contract" due to the changed owner of the house being provided with energy services. Although in fact, after the community of the UOC-KP had privatized the building, which did not belong to anybody, the owner did not change, but appeared.
Earlier, a warning was sent from the regional branch of Volynoblenergo that light would be intercepted, but as a result, the energy authorities appealed to the court. First, the Gorokhov District Court returned the claim to the plaintiff, but the enterprise filed an appeal against this decision, and the case was sent for reconsideration. However, neither the plaintiff nor the third party (the community of the UOC-KP) stated in the case appeared at any of the court sessions that were appointed four times – twice in December 2017, once in January and most recently on February 6, 2018. For the last two sessions, the parties were invited to sign the notice.
Recall that the community of the UOC-KP, registered in Ugrinov in November 2014, seized the church of the UOC and all the church real estate, privatized the priest's house with his family domiciled in the house, and partly evicted them via the court in April 2016.
