Citizen of Ukraine Serhiy Kovalenko considers illegal the decision of the Crimean Appeal Court, which cancelled the previous court ruling, ordering Volvo to pay him 53 million dollars of remuneration for the losses, suffered by the citizen as a result of a traffic accident.

      He disclosed this to a news conference in UNIAN.

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      According to the information of S.Kovalenko, on 28 August the Crimean Appeal Court cancelled the ruling of the Zheleznodorozhny court of Symferopol, made on 23 February of 2006, about levying the remuneration of losses from the Volvo Car Corporation and its Kyiv subsidiary “Viking Moors”. S.Kovalenko turned attention to the fact that the ruling was adopted very quickly, during an hour. At the same time, he stresses, the Appeal Court absolutely ignored all the facts, proved in court earlier, as well as conclusions of expertises, which were appointed and carried out by state expert institutions of Ukraine within the framework of the case.

      “It seems as they took a Volvo advertising reel and just rewrote it in the court ruling”, the victim stressed. According to S.Kovalenko, “we faced ignoring of everything that was done during 6 years of the lawsuit”.

      S.Kovalenko turned the attention of journalists to the fact that, on the eve of the Appeal court sitting, Volvo changed the law firm, defending its interests.

According to him, earlier Volvo’s interests were defended in court by famous international law firms, in particular, Baker&McKenzie and SALANS. At the same time, “during the whole 6 years of the lawsuit hearing in the Zheleznodorozhny court of Symferopol, they could not say anything against the arguments of the plaintiff and conclusions of ten expertises, and lost the trial”, he recalled.

      “And suddenly”, - S.Kovalenko said, - “There appeared a small, little-known firm, lodged its appeal, and won the trial during an hour”. He is convinced that the key to solution lies in the owners of this company. He publicized a copy of a document, given to his lawyers, which reads that the law firm was founded by Roman Tiutiunnyk, Viktoria Mirimskaya, and Oleksander Breduchev. “Turn attention to that fact that Roman Tiutiunnyk is the son of Mykhaylo Tiutiunnyk, who is the chairman of the Crimean Appeal Court”.

      “In other words, the son appeals, and the father examines the appeal”, S.Kovalenko resumed. “Is it possible to hope that this trial was unbiased?”, he asked.

      Considering that the arguments in the Appeal Court ruling were, in fact, absent, and that the founder of the law firm, representing Volvo interests in court, and the chairman of the court, are relatives, S.Kovalenko cast doubt upon the legality and validity of this ruling.

      As a result, he turned to President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko through President’s Representative in Crimea Hennadiy Moskal, and asked him to study the conditions of adopting the decision by the Crimean Appeal Court, and to give it a legal assessment. S.Kovalenko claimed that he will appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

      As UNIAN reported earlier, on 23 February of the current year, citizen of Ukraine Serhiy Kovalenko won a suit which he brought against Volvo concern and Viking Motors Ukrainian company at the total sum of 44 million dollars.

      In an exclusive interview with UNIAN, S.Kovalenko disclosed that the Zheleznodorzhny district court of the city of Symferopol partly allowed his suit against these companies for remunerating his moral and material damage after he crashed at a Volvo car and became a disabled person.

      The accident happened in June of 1998, when he was driving a “Volvo C70 Coupe” car. This brand was advertised as one of the safest cars of the last years. The car was equipped with a system of security pillows, none of which snapped into action during the accident. As a result of this, S.Kovalenko became an invalid. In December 2000 he brought a suit at 70 million dollars to the Zheleznodorozhny district court of the city of Symferopol. He assessed his material damages, including the lost of car, health, and business – at 20 million dollars, and the moral damage, including losing his family and becoming a disabled person in the age of 34, at 50 million dollars.