Civil Procedure Code or CAS: why courts make mistakes in jurisdiction

A civil case is a legal issue that arises from all rights existing in Russia: civil, labor, family and others. This issue requires its consideration and implementation by legal authorities according to established procedures.

In the process of citizens and enterprises exercising their responsibilities and rights, issues may arise that sometimes require intervention, as well as the enactment of a certain decision of higher jurisdictional authorities.

All actions necessary to resolve civil matters are divided into:

• civil cases;
• administrative matters;
• criminal cases;
• constitutional matters.

Each of the definitions of cases, except those related to civil cases, has certain characteristics that are fixed in Russian laws. For example, constitutional cases include issues of interpretation of the constitution and verification of its compliance with modern normative legal acts. Administrative ones include a list of issues arising from violations of rights, which are thoroughly spelled out in our country’s Code of Administrative Offenses. A whole list of issues that arise from actions described in detail in the Criminal Code of Russia is classified as criminal.

From this we can conclude that civil matters include all issues that are not related to the foundations of other rights. To solve them, various methods are used, which are based on various postulates.

In what order are civil cases studied and resolved?

Most types and the basis of civil affairs are recognized as a prerequisite for their special order of study. Cases of a civil nature can be considered by courts, public associations and administrative bodies that are entrusted with the necessary legal powers.

A citizen who has applied for protection may well choose the body that will be entrusted with studying his case, if the law provides for such a possibility.

Advocates and jurists provide assistance in civil cases. The Constitution of Russia guarantees every citizen of the country the right to defense, therefore every case is conducted in court. Each of the decisions made by other bodies can be challenged in court.

Civil cases are accepted for examination either in arbitration or in a court of general jurisdiction.

Civil Procedure Code or CAS: why courts make mistakes in jurisdiction

Until September 15, 2015, it was possible to appeal against acts, decisions or actions of government authorities in civil proceedings, but in a special manner - according to Chapter. 24 and 25 of the Civil Code. Now almost all such claims fall under the Code of Administrative Offences. At the same time, according to the rules of civil procedure, the court evaluates those acts from which civil rights and obligations arise - for example, when a person receives the right to any property. Such clarifications are given in paragraph 1 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court dated September 27, 2021 No. 36 “On some issues of the application of the CAS of the Russian Federation by courts.”

Difficult choice

The rules are formulated very abstractly, and there are few specific resolutions from the Supreme Court, says legal partner Ainur Yalilov. Therefore, judges may be hesitant about the order in which to consider a case. Controversial situations arise when one case has both administrative and civil legal components, says Yuriy Pustovit, managing partner of Yug Law Firm. “For example, by order of the local administration, a building was demolished, which it considered an unauthorized construction - here the civil right of ownership was violated, but it was violated in accordance with the administrative act of the government authority,” Pustovit gives examples. “Or the area of ​​the site has decreased due to illegal amendments by Rosreestr: property rights have also been violated, but the court will have to assess the legality of the officials’ actions.”

According to Yalilov, each judge tries to interpret the Supreme Court’s clarifications independently in order to apply them in a specific case. As a result, two judges may make different procedural decisions on similar issues. Courts of general jurisdiction mistakenly classify administrative cases as civil, and this problem is systemic in nature, O Mikhail Gusev.

If the court concludes that the claims were filed in the wrong order, it issues a ruling to refuse to accept the claim or administrative claim. If the judge has doubts, it is more convenient for him to refuse: in this case, an appeal may be made on the controversial issue. After all, cancellations of rulings, as a rule, do not affect the judge’s overall statistics, says Yalilov. If the judge accepted for consideration a dispute that was resolved in an improper proceeding, then this is already a very serious violation, the lawyer explains.

It is also possible that the error is not corrected, and the dispute is considered in violation of the rules of jurisdiction. Choosing the wrong type of legal proceedings creates great problems for the plaintiff due to the different principles of civil and administrative proceedings. In the first case, they proceed from the equality of the plaintiff and the defendant, who have similar procedural rights. In the second case, the citizen is given more rights, and the government agency has more responsibilities, and the burden of proof is distributed accordingly. If an administrative dispute was resolved according to civil rules, it means that the citizen was deprived of the procedural rights and opportunities that are due to him by law. Mistakes here also lead to the case being considered by another court, says Yalilov. If the case concerns land plots, then, when you are forced to file a claim in civil proceedings, you will need to address it at the location of the plot, says the lawyer, while an administrative claim is filed at the location of the government authority.

You can't argue endlessly

Citizens should not suffer from the doubts of courts that do not know which forum to decide a case, the Supreme Court said in a recent case. Yuri Zhilin* decided to challenge the refusal of the local administration to allocate a garden plot to him. At first he filed an administrative claim, but the application was returned and it was indicated that the case should be resolved in civil law. This decision of the Surgut City Court was “overpowered” by the court of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Ugra.

Zhilin did just that: he filed a civil suit. The Surgut City Court satisfied it, but the court of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, contrary to its position in the previous case, terminated the proceedings. He explained that the issue should be resolved, on the contrary, administratively. The Supreme Court did not agree with this and overturned this act. If Zhilin cannot go to court either in a civil or administrative manner, it turns out that his right to judicial protection has been completely taken away, says the Supreme Court ruling No. 69-KG17-17. As a result, the case was sent for a new appeal.

How to determine the jurisdiction of a dispute

If legal relations arose only as a result of an act of an authority and are of a public law nature, then rights must be protected by an administrative claim or statement in accordance with the “administrative” Chapter. 24 AIC, explains Pustovit.

According to him, an ordinary civil claim must be filed if legal relations arose from the facts specified in Art. 8 GK. In particular, these are:

• contracts and other transactions;
• acts of state bodies and local governments, on the basis of which civil rights and obligations arise by law;
• causing harm;
• unjust enrichment.

If the plaintiff challenges the administration’s refusal to transfer ownership of the land plot, he needs to choose administrative proceedings, says Pustovit. This is the procedure for resolving cases in which a public act (or, in this case, a refusal to make one) violated the rights of the plaintiff. And if a citizen demanded to sell him a plot according to the law and was refused, he would have to file an ordinary [civil] lawsuit to compel him to conclude an agreement, Pustovit concludes.

What cases are resolved under the CAS procedure: the opinion of the Supreme Court

• A citizen is challenging the refusal of local authorities to allocate him a garden plot free of charge (definition No. 20-KG17-17, 20-KG17-16).
• The citizen is challenging the act of local authorities on the procedure for dismantling unauthorized buildings (definition No. 11-APG17-9).
• The citizen challenges the inaction of the local administration, which does not connect his house to the water supply network (definition No. 45-KG17-4).
• The HOA is appealing the decision of the municipal authorities, which imposed an easement on its site (definition No. 11-КГ17-18).
• The state-owned enterprise wants to recognize the instructions of the State Labor Inspectorate as illegal (definition No. 29-KG17-5).

What cases are resolved under the Code of Civil Procedure: the opinion of the Supreme Court

• The prosecutor challenges acts of local authorities, as a result of which a number of citizens received plots of land, and then some of them were sold to third parties (No. 27-KG17-11).
• The former serviceman, who did not agree with the characterization received, filed a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity (No. 201-KG17-35).
• The citizen decided to oblige the local authorities to issue her the title “Veteran of Labor” (No. 53-KG17-8).

Break down the procedural barrier

If the plaintiff made a mistake and submitted an incorrect application, this should not slow down the process, Pustovit is convinced. Instead of refusing to accept a claim, returning it or leaving it without progress, the court itself should determine the correct type of legal proceedings, inform the participants in the process about this and consider the case according to the law, the lawyer believes. He proposes to include such an explanation in the law or enshrine it in judicial practice.

A similar approach was used by the administrative panel of the Supreme Court in one of the recent disputes, where the plaintiff stated in an administrative claim several demands against the Ministry of Social Policy of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The court accepted part of the claims, but rejected the other part, because they must be considered in another - civil - legal proceeding. Instead, they should have been independently accepted and resolved according to the rules of the Civil Procedure Code, the Supreme Court indicated. This is consistent with the resolution of the Constitutional Court No. 28-P of November 11, 2014, which states that justice must be procedurally effective, without undue delays in the consideration of cases, as specified in determination No. 53-KG17-8.

The Supreme Court gave even more detailed explanations in its fresh ruling No. 81-KG17-27:

The type of legal proceedings (civil or administrative) is chosen by the court. He must transfer the application for consideration to the same court, but in a different order, and not dismiss the case.

*Name and surname have been changed by the editors.

• Evgenia Efimenko

• Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

Types of civil cases

Civil cases are divided into 5 groups:

1. Claim-type cases. This group includes all cases concerning disputes over civil, housing, labor, land, family, environmental and other types of relations.
2. Special cases that have nothing to do with legal disputes, but require a judicial decision.
3. Cases in the process of which decisions of foreign courts, as well as arbitration decisions of other states, are recognized and put into effect.
4. Cases related to refuting the arbitration decision, as well as cases regarding the transfer of sheets of execution of punishment forcibly against the decision of these courts.
5. Cases concerning the protection of the rights of choice, as well as refutation of the actions of government agencies and persons in office.

Specifics of civil proceedings

Every day, every person enters into many legal relationships - with family, neighbors, child’s teachers, employer, partners, organizations, passers-by, drivers, etc.
And in each of these situations, someone's rights could potentially be violated. The list of problems considered by the civil court is very impressive - descriptions of types of violations of legislative norms and options for resolving conflicts took up 4 volumes of the Civil Code. You can independently take up the challenge of asserting rights in such disputes only in simple cases and do this only after legal consultation with an experienced lawyer or legal adviser.

A key feature of the judicial review of civil cases is that the collection of evidence rests mainly with the participants in the process, who appear before the court, which considers the evidence and arguments of the parties and makes a decision in favor of the plaintiff or defendant.

Legal features of civil cases

The legislation of the Russian Federation regulates in sufficient detail the resolution of controversial issues in this area of ​​the legal life of society.

The main legislative acts in this area are:

1. Constitution of the Russian Federation.
2. Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
3. Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
4. Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.
5. Administrative Procedural Code of the Russian Federation.

In addition, the authorities have issued many laws and regulations that specify the resolution of controversial issues in various areas of law:

1. Law on Consumer Protection".
2. Law “On the Protection of Intellectual Property”.
3. Law “On the Mass Media”.
4. Law “On Advertising”, etc.

The procedure for carrying out various activities in civil law is regulated by relevant regulations.

Moscow legal – legal assistance from the best civil lawyers in Moscow

The Moscow Legal Law Bureau began its activities more than 10 years ago; our specialists are members of the bar and have all the necessary powers to effectively represent the interests of clients in court. High qualifications and knowledge of all the intricacies of Moscow legal proceedings, combined with serious practical experience, allow our lawyers to develop effective winning strategies even in the most difficult cases. Our lawyers approach each private dispute individually, clarifying all the circumstances in detail and correctly assessing the prospects of the trial.

Civil Case Groups

1. Claims related to the participation of citizens, organizations, as well as government bodies and local self-government for the protection of violated or disputed rights and legitimate interests.
2. Claims arising from disputes from all areas of civil legal relations (labor, environmental, family, housing and others);
3. Claims related to the protection of electoral rights and other cases arising from public legal relations.
4. Challenging decisions of government bodies.
5. Cases challenging decisions of courts of first instance.
6. Cases on forced execution of arbitration decisions.
7. Cases on recognition of decisions of foreign courts.

Help from a lawyer

Having many years of experience in this area, our lawyers will competently and essentially give a legal assessment of your current situation, help you both draw up the documents necessary to initiate legal proceedings, and provide assistance by supervising enforcement proceedings in cases that have already been successfully completed. We will do everything necessary to ensure that our client’s legitimate interests are restored and the damage caused to him is compensated, regardless of the situation in which the dispute arises.

By contacting us, you will receive:

1. Competent legal advice.
2. Assistance in the preparation, execution and collection of necessary documents.
3. Protecting your interests in court.
4. After judicial support of enforcement proceedings.