Armed Forces of the Russian Federation: it is impossible to justify poor-quality repairs under the state contract with errors in the technical task
Shortcomings were identified in the work on the repair of the highway, but they were not eliminated on time. The customer offered to terminate the contract. The contractor refused, because all the work was done, but the customer did not accept them and did not pay. The parties appealed to the court.
The examination found that the quality of the repair corresponds to the contract, but the technical task was made incorrectly. The disadvantages arose due to the fact that the latter does not have the necessary additional work.
The first instance supported the customer.
The appeal decided otherwise — collected payment from the customer. The examination did not show that the shortcomings cannot be eliminated, and claims to quality are not exempt from payment. In addition, the contract has expired, so it can no longer be terminated.
The cassation upheld the decision of the first instance, because:
if the repair was performed poorly, then the contract was executed improperly;
the contractor, as a professional, knew that additional work was needed, and understood that they were not in the technical task, but did not inform the counterparty about it and did not suspend the repair;
the customer cannot be held responsible for a bad result due to errors in the technical task. He has no special knowledge, he counted on the professionalism of the contractor.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not reconsider the case
A similar conclusion was reached, in particular, by the ACE of the North-Western District.
Document: Definition of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of 16.05.2022 N 304-ES22-5594