Payment order granted. Obliging the debtor to pay the debt corresponding to the value of unpaid invoices. Obligating the debtor to pay the legal penal interest from the due date of each invoice until actual payment of the principal debt.
The debtor company was ordered to pay the amount owed to the creditor as a result of works carried out by the latter involving drilling (foraje) in the city of Oradea.
RELEVANCE OF THE CASE
Unpaid outstanding invoices in contractual relations between professionals is a reality, being among the most common problems that companies face in practice.
Failure to make payment on time and under the conditions established by agreements concluded between professionals is a real impediment to the normal operation of a company, often becoming a cause of its inability to pay. Thus, rapid and complete collection of receivables is important for the ongoing activity of every company as well as for forming new business relationships.
SYNTHESIS OF THE FACTUAL SITUATION
In fact, between the creditor and debtor companies there were commercial relations that were not formalized by concluding a written contract. The debtor issued an order by which it requested the creditor to execute drilling works, the price being agreed by the parties at a specific sum per linear meter drilled.
It is also relevant that at the end of the drilling works, acceptance reports (“procese-verbale de recepție”) were drawn up, signed also by a representative of the beneficiary, so through this it was possible to prove both the actual performance and the qualitative conformity of the works.
After completing the directional drilling works according to the parties’ understanding, the debtor company refused to pay for them, even though the creditor repeatedly asked for payment of its receivable, even sending a formal notice in this regard.
PRESENTATION AND SUPPORT OF THE CASE
The law provides that the creditor company has the right to full, exact, and timely fulfillment of its obligation. When without justification the debtor does not perform its obligation and is in delay, the creditor may, at its choice and without losing the right to interest-damages, if deserved, request or, as appropriate, proceed to enforcement of the obligation.
Also, the law provides that the payment order procedure applies to claims that are certain, liquid, and due, consisting of obligations to pay sums of money which result from a civil contract, verified by a document, or determined according to status, regulation or other document, adopted by the parties by signature or in another manner allowed by law.
The particularity of this case was precisely due to the circumstance that between companies there was no contract documented in writing; the directional drilling works were performed by the creditor company based on verbal agreements and a work order issued by the debtor and accepted by the contractor.
In this sense, as debt recovery lawyers in Cluj, we had the task of proving before the Oradea Justice Court that between the two companies there existed contractual relations adopted, even though in reality there was no contract documented in writing.
Thus, the Brisc Legal attorneys showed the court that, concretely, the contract between the two companies was formed as a result of the meeting of offer with acceptance; the offer consisted of the order issued by the debtor company, adopted by signature and stamp, through which it asked the creditor to execute drilling works in the city of Oradea.
The acceptance of the offer materialized through the actual performance by the creditor company of the works, consisting of carrying out drilling for approximately 700 linear meters.
We developed arguments in support of granting the payment order, insisting on the circumstance that between the two companies there was a meeting of wills with the intention to bring into existence a legal relationship; the parties thus bound themselves by the tasks owed by them and we proved that the amount claimed represents a debt that is certain, liquid, and due.
Finally, distinct from the principal debt, we requested and obtained penal legal interest from the due date of each invoice until the actual payment of the full debt, proving that the debtor was legally in default, since it failed to fulfill the obligation to pay a sum of money it had assumed in the operation of its business. Additionally, in support of this claim, we invoked the principle of full compensation for damage.
DECISION OF ORADEA JUSTICE COURT
Taking over the considerations developed in supporting the creditor’s demands, the Oradea Justice Court ordered the debtor to pay within 20 days from communication of the judgment the sum owed representing the unpaid invoices, the penal legal interest, from the due date of each invoice until the actual payment of the principal debt. Also, the debtor company was ordered to bear the court costs.
In accord with the arguments elaborated in the request for issuing the payment order, the court noted that between the two professionals a contractual relationship was formed by reason of meeting offer and acceptance, and that the price agreed by mutual consent between the companies represents a debt that is certain, liquid, and due.
It is noted that the invoice, even if unsigned by the debtor, being regularly used in the course of business by the creditor, serves as evidence of its content under the provisions of Article 277 paragraph 2 of the Civil Procedure Code.
Thus, in the conduct of the relations between the parties, the creditor rendered directional drilling services, the debtor having the correlative obligation to pay their value, especially since in the acceptance reports attached it appears that the execution of the works was accepted by a representative of the debtor company. The court notes that through the invoices filed in the case file, the claimant proved that a convention (agreement) existed, from which it is presumed that there was culpable non-performance by the debtor.
This presumption, however, could have been overturned by proof of a legal act of payment, by another mode of extinguishing obligations, or by proving that the non-performance was without fault pursuant to Article 1547 Civil Code.
Given, however, that the debtor did not prove payment, did not dispute the invoices and the amounts included in them, nor did it prove the existence of an exonerating cause, the court retains that the debt claimed by the creditor is unpaid, and the non-fulfillment of contractual obligations is imputable to the debtor.
LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN THE ENFORCEMENT PHASE
Given that the debtor company did not pay the sum resulting from the court decision, the creditor, with assistance from attorneys specialized in debt enforcement, turned to a competent judicial executor. Thus, the sum was obtained by applying garnishments including against third parties who owed sums to the debtor in question, those being obliged to pay the outstanding debts directly to the judicial executor.