MOSCOW, July 12 (RAPSI) — OOO Femida has filed an action with the Moscow Commercial Court seeking to declare bankrupt OOO Burger Rus, the Russian operation of the Burger King fast food chain, because of a premises rent debt amounting to over 6 million rubles (about $80,000).

The court appointed a meeting to verify the validity of the application for declaring the debtor bankrupt for September 23. 

This May, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals dismissed a complaint of OOO Burger Rus against the decision to recover 5.8 million rubles ($80,000 at the current exchange rate) in favor of OOO Femida to compensate rent arrears and interest.

According to Burger Rus LLC, it did not receive any notice of an increase in the rent, and the obligation to pay the rent for May 2020 was terminated by offsetting the security deposit. According to the respondent, the requirement to charge the arrears interest was unreasonable, since it had been granted a deferral to pay rent.

Nevertheless, proceeding from the evidence presented by the parties the court ruled in favor of the claimant.

In April 2021, the Russian Supreme Court dismissed Burger Rus application seeking to reconsider the decision to recover about 14 million rubles ($188,000) of rent arrears.

Having established the fact that Burger Rus was in arrears in paying rent during the period in question, having checked the claimants' calculation and finding it correct, the Moscow Commercial Court satisfied the claim, reducing the amount of penalties due, the Supreme Court reminded. The claimant's arguments were examined by courts, and were given an appropriate legal assessment; no significant violations of the rules of procedural law that influenced the outcome of the case were found, the Supreme Court said.