THE GAS company Slovenský Plynárenský Priemysel (SPP) has won litigation in which it disputed the validity of a Sk400-million bill of exchange presented by the Orava-based company Draft-ova, the SITA newswire wrote on January 29.
The bill of exchange was signed by the late former SPP Director Ján Ducký in 1998. The Regional Court in Bratislava, acting as an appellate court in this instance, confirmed the verdict issued by the Bratislava V District Court, which found the bill of exchange invalid on May 21 of last year and canceled the payment order for it.
The bill of exchange was invalid because its maturity is subject to the statute of limitations, but was undated. This decision is final and cannot be appealed. The plaintiff, the company Draft-ova, had appealed the Bratislava V District Court's verdict. According to its legal representative, the decision of the court of first instance was incorrect, and the company demanded that the bill of exchange in question be acknowledged as valid. They also demanded repayment of court costs.
The so-called Ján Ducký Bills of Exchange, amounting to Sk1.4 billion, were supposed to have been signed by Ducký, who was shot and killed in front of his house in Bratislava in January, 1999. He served as economy minister in two governments under Vladimír Mečiar between 1992 and 1998.
