Settlement agreement or continuation of the dispute?

ALRUD Law Firm represented the interests of SSI Schäfer, a world leader in the development, production and supply of equipment and systems for intra-warehouse logistics, in the largest insurance dispute on recovery of losses, which resulted from the collapse of a warehouse complex.

In April 2017, the roof of the warehouse of the PepsiCo plant, in Lebedyan, collapsed. As a result Several tons of juice spilled onto the streets of the town. The losses suffered by the PepsiCo Group were reimbursed by its insurance company, which then filed a subrogation claim against SSI Schäfer, who had designed and built the warehouse.

$51
mln the amount of insurance claim

ALRUD's challenge was complicated by the fact that ALRUD had been involved in the project at the stage of considering the dispute by the court of appeals, when the court of the first instance sustained the claim of the insurance company in full, and a number of important actions necessary for proper resolution of the dispute (e.g., application for forensic examination), had not been fulfilled. This limited the set of remedies available for the Client.

The ALRUD team developed a comprehensive strategy to protect the client's interests in the court. This included the involvement of well-known surveyors for preparing a contra-calculation of losses, technical experts for establishing the causes of the accident and well-known legal scholars for assisting the court in resolving complex issues of the tort law.

> twofold
reduction in the amount
to be paid by the client

The position on the dispute and the whole defense strategy both elaborated by ALRUD enabled the parties to come to the negotiating table. This resulted in entering into an amicable agreement on mutually-beneficial terms for the parties.

The ALRUD team, which supported one of the most competitive insurance disputes in Russia, was headed by Sergey Petrachkov, ALRUD Partner of Dispute Resolution Practice. The team also included Denis Bekker, Associate, and Anastasia Chagina, Senior Attorney.

To learn more about the projects of Dispute Resolution Practice, click here.