The state was sued for quarantine – Respublika.lt



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The company Aukštaitijos Implantology Clinic was the first to file an application with the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court. The companies are convinced that the government did not have the authority to close businesses, and in doing so illegally restricted human rights, violated laws and the Constitution. The company asks the court to declare the government’s restrictions on economic activity and property illegal and to reimburse almost 70,000. to damage. The amount was calculated by estimating how much revenue the company lost due to quarantine.

The complaint states that Lithuanian law and the Constitution did not establish the Government’s right to apply such restrictions, as some restrictions can only apply after the imposition of a state of emergency. This could only be done by the Seimas, so the Government could have exceeded its powers. “Certain restrictions could apply, and the human rights provided for in the country’s basic law and international legal acts could be restricted only after the Seimas made a decision on the introduction of a state of emergency. The Seimas did not do that,” says Rasa Andriuškevičienė, director of the UAB Aukštaitijos Implantology Clinic, who filed a complaint against the state.

Only two weeks after the government introduced quarantine, in 2020. On March 31, the Seimas amended and completed the laws. In the opinion of UAB Aukštaitijos implantologijos klinikos, the Seimas, retrospectively trying to legitimize illegal actions of the Government, recognized that the prohibitions applied by the Government during the quarantine were illegal.

As Nerijus Zaleckas, a lawyer representing the company, told Vakaro žinios, the courts may receive more similar complaints: “Dozens of other entrepreneurs are calculating the damage they have suffered. The other party still wants to await the court’s reaction, but it should be noted that the statute of limitations to file such a complaint is only three years. Given that the court will have to file a request with the Constitutional Court to confirm or deny the legality of the Government’s actions, it is likely that the hearing of the case will take approximately three years. Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights can be appealed to. “

According to the lawyer, Lithuania is not the only country where the prohibitions applied during the quarantine would be recognized as illegal. April 23 The Prague court ruled that the bans and restrictions on freedom of movement in the trade and services sectors imposed by the Czech Ministry of Health were illegal.

Furthermore, even if government-imposed property bans and restrictions were recognized as legal, the state must still compensate property owners for losses incurred as a result of such restrictions. According to counsel, the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly emphasized the proportionality of restrictions and compensation for prohibitions on the use of property, according to which the state must pay compensation if the property manager cannot make a profit on the property, ”says attorney N. Zaleckas .

Commenting on the situation, Aurelijus Veryga, the head of statewide emergency operations, said the price paid by the company for the quarantine could have been higher: “Let him submit an application. The country is democratic and everyone has the right to go to court: both citizens and companies. Some alternative? Do we want a situation like in Brazil, Sweden or other places where there have been many problems and deaths? The company may not realize that, in such a case, it would have been necessary to “close” for a long time and the question of whether the company would not have collapsed or closed at all. I think the price we paid, albeit high, allowed us to return to a former life and now companies can breathe more freely. Certainly, not all countries breathe as freely as we do. “



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