Supreme Court of Lithuania
30 November 2010
Facts
The essence of the dispute is the assessment of the conditions for the appellate court to exercise its right to refer the case back to the court of first instance. In general, the dispute arose over damaged building materials and related expenses.
Complaint
The plaintiff requested that the regional court's ruling be overturned and that the district court's decision be upheld. The plaintiff based his request, inter alia, on the fact that the court of appeal had unjustifiably referred the case back to the court of first instance, since the court of appeal could have requested the necessary data itself.
Court‘s ruling
In civil proceedings, the right of the appellate court to overturn the contested decision of the court of first instance and refer the case back is restricted. This is primarily linked to the right to a trial within a reasonable time, as enshrined in Article 6 (1) of the European Convention on Human Rights. This right can only be guaranteed if the proceedings in the case are conducted consistently, first in the court of first instance and then in the court of appeal, and the case is not unreasonably referred back to a lower court. Any referral of a case back to a lower court means that the duration of the proceedings is significantly prolonged. In order to avoid this, the legislator has established that a case may be referred back to the court of first instance for re-examination only in exceptional cases.
The court of appeal, being competent to decide on both factual and legal issues, must correct the violations committed during the examination of the case in the court of first instance. Returning the case to the court of first instance for re-examination is an extreme measure.
After assessing the circumstances of the specific case, the Court overturned the regional court's ruling and referred the case back to the appellate court for reconsideration.