ZRVP Recovers 20 Million Euros for International Construction Company in ICC Arbitration

ZRVP’s construction arbitration team obtains a new final solution for maintaining an ICC arbitral award establishing the right of the Contractor, an international construction company, to over 20 million Euros, the owed amounts being fully recovered.

The beginning of this year has brought a new success to the construction arbitration team of Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys at Law (ZRVP) in a dispute derived from the performance of a works contract in road infrastructure initiated by the Contractor, an international construction company.

At a first stage, an arbitral award was obtained, this being ruled by a tribunal formed under the rules of the Court of International Arbitration attached to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Paris), which established our Client’s right to over 20 million Euros plus delay penalties representing damages for the additional executed works and the prolongation of the performance term of the Agreement for reasons non-imputable to the Contractor.

The Beneficiary brought an action for the annulment of said award and, in the context of initiation by our Client of the enforcement procedure, a settlement agreement was concluded to condition the closing of the dispute and the recovery of the entire amount by the Contractor on the favorable resolution of the claim for annulment.

At the beginning of this year, the appeal field by the Beneficiary against a first relief of rejection of the claim for annulment by the Bucharest Court of Appeal was, in turn, rejected. At this date all the amounts obtained following the arbitration have been fully recovered.

The team of attorneys at law, coordinated by Alina Tugearu, partner, was formed of Andra Constantinescu, managing associate, and Ion Enache, senior associate.

Alina Tugearu, Partner of Zamfirescu Racoţi Vasile & Partners: “The solution we have obtained settles several matters of law of interest in this area: the Bucharest Court of Appeal characterized the limits of the notion of public order, considered to be a “yielding notion, always adjustable to the current and future social needs” and “that does not confine itself only to the express imperative provisions”, yet acknowledging that it is incumbent on any judge that “the legal texts being silent” this may confer the character of public order on a legal provision, “when it considers that its observance is absolutely necessary to protect the general interests of the society”, which did not happen in this case.”

With unparalleled experience in commercial arbitration, ZRVP’s team has been involved in the last two years in over 23 international arbitrations, out of which 19 are still ongoing, representing the largest portfolio of national and international arbitration case files from Romania, the cumulated value of the projects exceeding USD 1.7 billion. The company has a vast record in construction and infrastructure disputes, ZRVP lawyers representing public institutions, private corporations, state undertakings and governmental bodies in complex disputes in terms of object and impressive as regards the claimed values. The arbitration department is known also for their expertise in real estate, energy, privatization, banking and finance and investment arbitration.

About Zamfirescu Racoţi Vasile & Partners

Zamfirescu Racoţi Vasile & Partners (ZRVP) is recognized as one of the leading law firms in Romania, providing legal assistance services in the areas of litigation and arbitration, as well as business law, insolvency, criminal law and tax consultancy.

ZRVP has a team of 66 lawyers, including 16 partners: Călin-Andrei Zamfirescu, Ioana Racoţi and Stan Tîrnoveanu (founding partners), Cosmin Vasile (managing partner), Anca Danilescu (senior partner), Andrei Dumitrescu, Mihai Băjenaru, Elena Iacob, Alina Tugearu, Monica Strîmbei, Cătălin Micu, Cosmin Cojocaru, Crenguța Marina Florea and Ovidiu Șerban (partners), prof. dr. Valerian Cioclei and Robert Oancea (of counsel).