We successfully represented Šiaulių plentas, a road and bridge construction company. before the Supreme Court of Lithuania in a case regarding the unlawful off-set of contractual late interest by the Lithuanian Road Administration. Šiaulių plentas was awarded EUR 235,000, 8% procedural interest and litigation costs.
The main dispute in the case arose due to the fact that the Lithuanian Road Administration had calculated late contractual interest for overdue contractual works not based on each separate unfinished site, but based on the total price of all contracts (sites). The Supreme Court of Lithuania supported the position of Šiaulių plentas, since the provisions of the contracts, which were prepared by the Lithuanian Road Administration itself (as the contracting authority), lack clarity and have caused a deterioration in the financial position of the supplier.
Late interest was calculated from the total price of the contracts
This court ruling is important in that it confirmed not only the repeated unlawful actions of the Lithuanian Road Administration in calculating the contractual late interest, but also recognised the claimant’s right to demand procedural interest when filing a lawsuit for the recognition of off-sets as invalid. After the first decision, the court also corrected the awarded amount due to arithmetical error.
“Since there are at least several dozen disputes of a similar nature with procurement organisations every year, we hope that this decision of the Supreme Court of Lithuania will help bring clarity to many future disputes,” says partner Laurynas Lukošiūnas.
Our team representing the client
Our client was represented by partner Laurynas Lukošiūnas and associate Erikas Linkevičius.
