Can the company claim back the money transferred from its account in any case?

The situation that culminated in court was unusual. Our Client sold an attractive property, which was mortgaged to a bank to a limited liability company many years ago. The bank loan was not repaid by the Client, because the company did not pay the Client the price agreed upon in the sales contract, and thus the mortgage continued to encumber the property. In order to avoid the termination of the loan agreement and the initiation of foreclosure on the property, the partner, and at the same time a member of the company’s board of directors, repaid the loan in such a way that he transferred the amount equivalent to the loan installment from the company’s account to his account related to servicing the loan, and in this way fulfilled his obligation to the bank to repay the loan installments. This situation lasted for many years, until, as a result of internal disagreements, the company applied to the court for reimbursement of the amounts paid from its account without legal basis to the account of a partner, believing that it was due reimbursement of all claims paid in this way, together with statutory interest.

The adjudicating court first issued a payment order by writ of payment, granting the claim in full. The order for payment was challenged by the Law Firm’s lawyers, and thus the case ended up in litigation. Representing the Client before the court, the lawyers showed that the situation that led to the court case did not arise through the fault of the Client. The company and the other partners had accurate knowledge of the state of the company’s settlements with the defendant partner, they agreed to such a method of payment, so in the case there can be no obligation to reimburse, as there is a circumstance that excludes this reimbursement based on Article 411 point 1 of the Civil Code.

This reasoning was fully accepted by the ruling court, which dismissed the company’s claim. The verdict is final.

Thanks to the determination of the lawyers, the case ended successfully for the Client, with the understanding that issues of financial settlements between a limited liability company and its shareholder require caution and in-depth analysis even before taking factual action.