The appeals section of the Vladimir region Arbitration Court rejected an appeal by US Sawyer Research Products (SRP), a leading producer of mono-crystals, its subsidiary Russian Quartz, Moscow, and Qu…
The appeals section of the Vladimir region Arbitration Court rejected an appeal by US Sawyer Research Products (SRP), a leading producer of mono-crystals, its subsidiary Russian Quartz, Moscow, and Quartz Glass and Especially Clean Quartz Glass (both from Gus Khrustanlny), against a ruling by the regular court invalidating an agreement renting a unit of Quartz Glass to the US company. The court backed the earlier ruling from 9 February 2001 invalidating the rental agreement, signed by plant management and SRP in July 1997 for a period of 25 years. for the production unit, Judge Ludmilla Yevsevyev said. According to this ruling, the US company should return the unit to the quartz glass plant and the Russian company should pay SRP$ 1.48 million and US$ 221,000 invested by the company in repairing equipment in the production unit. However, Quartz Glass plant later appealed to the court, alleging that there were infringements with the implementation of the deal. The court invalidated the deal and explained this decision by the fact that implementation of the agreement led to breaches of the external management plan for Quartz Glass agreed by creditors. SRP and its subsidiary Russian Quartz appealed this decision. At the same time Quartz Glass and Especially Clean Quartz Glass, set up to spin off assets of the crystal cultivation unit from Quartz Glass in summer 2000, appealed the court decision to pay SRP funds for the repair of equipment. Especially Clean Quartz Glass deputy general director Mikhail Gumenny told Interfax that the US company is not implementing the court decision from 9 February regarding the transfer of equipment to Quartz Glass. However, he admitted that the delay in the procedure for transferring the property is of an objective nature. Gumenny explained that the technological cycle for cultivating piezoelectric crystals lasts six months. Halting production to implement the court decision would result in large losses, he stressed.