MOSCOW, May 4 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court dismissed a lawsuit by the supermarket chain Billa, part of Germany's REWE Group. The suit sought to recover $13.04 million in losses from its former CEO, Christian Harten, Takhmin Arabov, Kharten's representative, told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru).

The lawsuit dealt with 16 contracts on the lease of property, where the retailer's stores are located. The contracts were concluded with ReMa Immobilien in 2004.

In April 2008, ReMa Immobilien reassigned the right of claim on the lease of C.R.R.B.V. (Netherlands). Billa was notified of this. But afterward ReMa Immobilien and C.R.R.B.V. issued controversial orders as to on which account the lease payments should be transferred. Eventually, the payment was transferred to a Rema account while ignoring C.R.R.B.V.'s claims.

The Dutch company then filed a claim with the commercial court to prove the legal status of the assignment agreement and recover the debt under payments and losses for June-December 2009 and April-August 2010 from Billa which amounted to 388,673 million rubles ($13.04 million).

Now Billa has filed a claim to recover the loss from Christian Harten, the company's CEO from 2007 to late August 2009.

REWE Group's subsidiary, REWE International AG is developing the Billa supermarket chain. Today, 73 supermarkets comprise the Billa chain. The company does not disclose its profit statement.