On August 20, 2020, the Ecoclub filed a lawsuit against the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Rivne Regional State Administration. The lawsuit’s purpose is to declare illegal and cancel the conclusion on the environmental impact assessment of TECHNOPRIVID INVEST GROUP LLC – now Kronospan Rivne LLC.
The statement of claim was signed by Oksana Maryuk, a legal adviser to the Ecoclub.
And on October 15, after eliminating the shortcomings, which the Court pointed out, the application was accepted for consideration and opened proceedings in the administrative case.
A similar lawsuit to the Department was filed by a resident of Gorodok, lawyer Vitaliy Kitovsky.
In November of the same year, Kronospan, who is the third party in the case, demanded that the lawsuits of Vitaliy Kitovsky and the Ecoclub should be combined into one case. Kronospan’s claims were accepted and joined in case №460 / 6239/20 and passed to another judge.
Subsequently, Kronospan filed another petition, asking to leave without considering the claim of the Ecoclub. The company’s representatives appealed that Oksana Maryuk is not a lawyer and does not have enough rights to sign the lawsuit.
Ecoclub filed an objection. During a court hearing on November 30, 2020, Andriy Martyniuk, executive director of the Ecoclub NGO, confirmed that Oksana Maryuk had the right to sign documents and supported that lawsuit.
However, the Court left Ecoclub’s application without consideration. At the same time, in the Court’s order stated: the person whose claim was left without consideration has the right to apply to the administrative Court again after eliminating all the grounds specified by the Court.
So, considering the case of the Ecoclub, the judges made different conclusions about the presence of the necessary powers of the person who signed the lawsuit: first Judge Natalia Doroshenko accepted the case. In contrast, another judge – Tamara Koshmelyuk later left it without consideration.
Therefore, on December 4, 2020, the Ecoclub again appealed to the Rivne District Administrative Court with a similar lawsuit to the Department (August 20, only signed by the Executive Director). The Ecoclub asked the Court to renew the term of appeal to the Court, which expired at the time of filing this second lawsuit.
According to the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, the Court may renew the missed deadline for applying to the Court if the participant in trial submits such an application. But only in cases when the Court recognizes reasons for the omission of the hearing compelling.
In June 2020, we filed a complaint with the Supreme Court. If the cassation appeal is accepted, the claim of the Ecoclub to appeal the conclusion on the environmental impact assessment of TECHNOPRIVID INVEST GROUP LLC will be considered by the Court of the first instance. If not, the Ecoclub will turn to international human rights organizations.
Read about another lawsuit of the Ecoclub here.