Appeal Court Passed Verdict in Favor of Underage G. K.

Nino Kimadze

On October 6, Tbilisi Appeal Court passed verdict in favor of the underage G. K. Micro-financial organization Georgian Capital was plaintiff at the trial. The Georgian Capital had appealed the decision of the City Court which had annulled mortgage of the applicant’s property.

Dispute into G. K’s property started on March 22, 2010 when based on the agreement documents underage G.K. was declared a debtor. In 2009 real estate of the underage G. K. was mortgaged in exchange of the debt (7 000 USD) at the JSC Micro-Financial Organization Georgian Capital. The family took loan for agricultural activities and annual percent of the debt was 60%. The family could not achieve success in their farm and on June 4, 2012 the property of G. K. was sold on the auction.

The family appealed to the court several times but they did not accept the appeal. Finally, Tbilisi City Court discussed the case and satisfied appeal of legal representatives of the underage owner. The court annulled agreements between the family and Georgian Capital.

Lawyer of Human Rights House Tbilisi Eka Kobesashvili represented the family at the court.

“HRHT is glad that today the court again upheld the principle according to which the rights of underage children shall be protected in the country. The state is responsible to create instruments for the protection of children’s rights. Today the court passed fair decision. We will continue monitoring of this case and will supervise whether follow-up problems caused by this agreement will be eradicated or not. We will ensure that underage applicant received his property back in a proper condition,” the lawyer Eka Kobesashvili said.

According to the lawyer, the appeal litigation was conducted with the support of the HRHT. Eka Kobesashvili believes it was precedential case and very important for the case law.

“Based on this case we plan to draft a legislative proposal to make relevant norms more clear in the law that will ensure inviolability of the properties of underage citizens even if their parents agree to sell the property but it is not within interests of the child. If a property of an underage person is sold or mortgaged, it should serve personal interests of the underage person,” Kobesashvili said.

HRHT plans to prepare information brochures for notaries in order to prevent similar facts in future.