Terms in civil law relations. What errors are common in calculations

The Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Articles 191 - 194) aims establishment of a unified procedure for calculating deadlines mainly in relation to cases where they are expressed by a certain period. For such cases, the beginning of the period and its end are provided.

According to Art. 191 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the course, determined by the period of time, begins on the day following the calendar date or the corresponding event. So, if January 1 is recognized as the beginning of the term, the countdown will begin on January 2.

Special rules have been established for determining the moment of expiration, expressed in years, months, quarters, crescents and weeks (Article 192 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, the one-year term expires in the corresponding month and day of the last year. For example, if the calculation of a three-year period began on March 30, 2008, then March 30, 2011 is considered its last day.

Monthly term shall be recognized as expired on the corresponding day of the last month. Thus, a period of one month beginning on 30 April would be deemed to have expired on 30 May. The same rule applies to terms of six months and a quarter, while the quarter is recognized as equal to three months, and its serial number starts from the beginning of the year (i.e., the beginning of the first quarter is January 1).

There may be cases when the month in which the end of the term falls does not have a corresponding date. Then the rule applies, by virtue of which the term is recognized as expired on the last day of this month. So, taking into account the fact that in March there are 31 days, and in April 30 days, the monthly period that began on March 31 will end on April 30.

Period calculated in weeks, is considered expired on the last day of the last week. Thus, a weekly period that began on Wednesday is recognized as expired on Wednesday of the next week.

Rules on the calculation of the period indicated in days, also apply to weekly periods with the fact that a two-week period is considered equal to 15 days.

If the period is six months, the rules governing the calculation of monthly terms are applied.

In Art. 193, 194 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, two situations are highlighted, covering terms expressed not only by a period of time, but also by a certain date.

The first situation occurs when the corresponding date or the last day of the period falls on a non-working day, such as Sunday. Then the term is recognized as having come or expired, respectively, on the next next business day (in the above example, on Monday).

The second situation is related to the procedure for performing actions on the last day of the term. We are talking about the fact that the obligation is recognized as fulfilled on time if it happened before 24:00 of the corresponding day. In this case, we mean individuals, as well as organizations with round-the-clock work (especially communication organizations that accept written notices and applications around the clock are highlighted). If the organization has a limited working time (for example, up to 18 hours), the period is considered to have expired since the end of the last hour of the organization's work. If the organization has set a certain time for performing any operations (for example, in a bank for carrying out settlement operations, issuing cash), then the period expires at the hour when the corresponding operations are terminated according to the established rules.

Often, the regulations themselves determine their order of entry into force. In this case, a wide variety of formulations are used, indicating the time of entry into force, of which the most common in federal regulatory legal acts are the following:

After ... from the date of official publication;

After ... after the day of official publication;

Considering that the Federal Law of 06/14/1994 N 5-FZ and the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 05/23/1996 N 763 (paragraphs 7 and) it is allowed to establish a different procedure for the entry into force of the NLA compared to the rules provided for in them, the wording on the conditions and procedure for entry into force these acts in force should be taken with the utmost care.

First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between the wording "from the day of official publication" and "after the day of official publication". This determines the decision of the question on which day (on the day of publication or the day after publication) the document enters into force or which day is considered the beginning of the period, if the entry into force of the document is associated with the expiration of a certain period.

Supporters of one position believe that if "from" is indicated, then the first day should be considered the day of official publication, if "after", then the period begins to be calculated on the day after publication. This point of view is substantiated by the fact that since the legislator, for some reason, uses two different prepositions, it means that they differ in meaning, and therefore they must be understood literally.

Proponents of another position believe that, regardless of the wording "with" or "after", the period begins to run on the day after publication. As an argument, the rules for calculating the terms established by industry laws are given, for example: the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Chapter 11), the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. It is also noted that this approach is more in line with the provisions of special regulations governing the general procedure for the entry into force of NLA, including Federal Law of 06/14/1994 N 5-FZ, Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 05/23/1996 N 763 (paragraphs 5, and ). In these acts, when establishing the general procedure for the entry into force of NLAs, the preposition "after" is used.

Since at present the legislation does not regulate the issue of when the period associated with the entry into force of documents begins and ends, the possibility of using existing codes to determine these periods needs to be discussed in more detail. Is it correct in this case to apply the rules of law by analogy?

There are different points of view on this issue. According to one of them, there is no reason to use the norms of sectoral codes for calculating the terms for the entry into force of legal acts, since these codes establish the procedure for calculating terms for regulating specific types of legal relations. Another point of view suggests the possibility of partial use of the norms of industry codes, in particular, Articles 191 and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), which establish, respectively, the beginning and end of the flow of a period defined by a period of time. In this case, one should proceed from the admissibility of applying civil legislation by analogy on the basis of Article 6 of the said Code.

But even if the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation are partially used, the ambiguity still remains. Thus, Article 192 establishes that "a term calculated in months expires on the corresponding day of the last month of the term." The question arises: does the term expire at 00:00 or at 24:00 of the corresponding day of the last month of the term? For example, a normative act is published on January 1 and enters into force one month after its official publication. If we consider that the period began to run from the date of publication, i.e. from January 1, then the date of entry into force of the document can be defined as February 1 (if the deadline expires at 00 hours) and February 2 (if the deadline expires at 24 hours). And, by applying the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the course of a period determined by a period of time begins the next day after the calendar date or the occurrence of the event that determines its beginning, you can get the following date options - February 2 and February 3. Thus, with different options for calculating terms, you can get different dates.

To illustrate the ambiguity in the issue of calculating the dates for the entry into force of NLAs, we will give examples of various definitions of the date of entry into force of the same document.

Example 1

Let's analyze the spelling of the expression AFTER EXPIRE (or AFTER EXPIRE).

Part of speech

ON EXPIRATION is a derivative preposition that comes from the noun "expiration". If you change a noun ending in -ie-, according to the general rule of the Russian language, the ending -I- will appear in the prepositional case. When a noun passes into another part of speech, this rule is preserved, therefore, the derivative preposition AFTER THE EXPIRE is always written with -AND- at the end.

Example: At the end of its service life, it was sent home. After the expiration of the contract, all relations between the partners became invalid. At the end of the month, we had to return the debt.

Is it necessary to isolate?

Very often, writers make a common mistake - the preposition AFTER THE EXPIRE is isolated along with the noun "attached" to it. This happens due to the fact that when pronouncing the expression out loud, we pause (after 5 months .... they broke up). In rare cases, isolation is necessary (only when the preposition is part of a qualifying construction).

For example: This Monday, after the expiration of our agreement, he must return 5 thousand rubles to me. On March 20, after the expiration of the old contract, we will have to conclude a new one.

Similar Expressions

The preposition AT THE END can always be replaced with similar ones in meaning and structure: AFTER COMPLETION, AT THE END (as you can see, the ending is also -AND-).

Your literacy depends only on you!

Article 191 of the Civil Code establishes that the course of a period determined by a period of time begins on the next day after the calendar date or the occurrence of the event that determines its beginning. The rules for determining the end of the term are established in Article 192 of the Civil Code.

QUOTE THE DOCUMENT. The term, calculated in years, expires on the corresponding month and day of the last year of the term (clause 1, article 192 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
A term calculated in months expires on the corresponding day of the last month of the term. 3 art. 192 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
A term calculated in weeks expires on the corresponding day of the last week of the term. 4 tbsp. 192 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Since the course of the term does not begin on the day on which its beginning is determined (let's call it conditionally - the defining date), but on the next day, this leads to difficulties in determining the last day of the term. The Civil Code does not explain which day the date of the last day of the term should correspond to - the defining date or the start date of the term. The answer is only in jurisprudence.

Procedural terms. The explanations of the Supreme Arbitration Court are available only in relation to a similar procedure for calculating the time limits established in part 4 of article 113 and parts 1-3 of article 114 of the Arbitration Procedure Code (these provisions on procedural terms are formulated in the same way as the provisions of article 192 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). In the opinion of the Presidium, the day of the expiration of the term corresponds to the defining date (paragraph 15 of the information letter dated December 22, 2005 No. 99 “On Certain Issues in the Practice of Application of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation”). In other words, if, for example, for a monthly period, the defining date is September 5, then the start date for this period is September 6, and the date of the last day of the period is October 5 (and if October 5 is a non-working day, then the next business day following it (Article 193 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Civil law terms. With regard to the date of expiration of civil law terms, the courts have the same point of view (see the rulings of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated May 11, 2011 No. VAC-2668/11, dated December 17, 2009 No. VAC-16083/09, decisions of the federal arbitration courts of the Moscow District dated March 5, 2011. 11 in case No. A40-99593 / 09-110-659, dated 13.05.09 in case No. A40-72846 / 08-94-510, of the Ural District of 19.05.11 in case No. A50-19096 / 2010, of the Volga District of 25.05 .10 in case No. A57-958b / 2002, of the West Siberian District dated 17.03.09 No. F04-1547 / 2009 (2458-A03-12)).

TOPIC ADVICE
Do not miss the statute of limitations on the most common disputes (on the collection of receivables) will help regular tracking of debts.
Information can be maintained in the form of tables. In the data on each receivable, it is necessary to indicate, among other things, the date of expiration of the limitation period, as well as record all cases of its interruption, and in the event of such interruption facts, change the date of expiration of the limitation period in a timely manner.

Without knowing the position of the courts on this issue, it is easy to make a mistake in the calculations, believing that the day of the end of the term corresponds to the date of the beginning of its course. That is, in the situation from our example, with such an erroneous approach, we can assume that the last day of the term is not October 5, but October 6. This mistake is sometimes made even by very experienced lawyers.

Deadlines that cannot be missed even by 1 day

There are a number of deadlines, skipping which even for 1 day entails serious negative consequences. These are preventive terms beyond which a person loses the opportunity to exercise his rights and powers. Let's take a look at the most common of them.

statute of limitations. As you know, claims filed with a lapse of the statute of limitations, if the second party to the dispute declared the omission, are not subject to satisfaction (. 2> Article 199 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The possibility of restoring a deadline missed for good reasons is provided for citizens, but not for organizations (Article 205 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Despite the rather long duration of the general statute of limitations, situations are quite common when a statement of claim is filed with the court on the last day. For example, due to the large amount of judicial work in the company or because of too long attempts to resolve the conflict situation out of court. In such cases, the risk of missing the statute of limitations due to an incorrect determination of the last possible day for filing a claim is especially high. The fact is that how much the statute of limitations is missed does not matter. Even a one-day pass entails a dismissal of the claim (see, for example, the decision of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Volga District dated May 25, 2010 in case No. A57-958b / 2002).

Power of attorney term. At the end of the term of the power of attorney, the representative loses his authority. If the term of the power of attorney is not determined by a specific date, but is set in years or months, then errors in the calculation of the last day of the term are also not excluded, as well as in the case when the term in the power of attorney is not indicated at all (then it is equal to a year from the date of the power of attorney -p 1> Article 186 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The consequences of the expiration of the power of attorney depend on what actions it authorized the representative to perform.

Power of attorney to represent in court. With regard to procedural powers of attorney, situations are common in practice when a statement of claim, a complaint to a higher authority, an application for review of a case by way of supervision or due to new or newly discovered circumstances is signed by a representative by proxy, but at the time this document is submitted to the court or sent by mail, the deadline this power of attorney has expired. For the performance of a procedural action, it is not the day of signing the document that is important, but the day of its transfer to the court or delivery to the post office - this follows from part 6 of article 114 of the Arbitration Procedure Code. Therefore, if an application or complaint is filed after the expiration of the power of attorney, then they are considered filed by a person who does not have the authority to perform the relevant procedural actions. In this case, the court leaves the statement of claim or complaint without consideration (paragraph 7 of part 1 of article 148, paragraph 1 of part 1 of article 264, paragraph 1 of part 1 of article 281, paragraph 3 of part 1 of article 315, paragraph 1 part 1 of article 296 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, rulings of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of December 25, 2008 No. 16733/08 of April 20, 2011 No. VAC-5474/11, ruling of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Far Eastern District of August 21, 2008 in case No. A24-403/2008, ruling of the Federal of the Arbitration Court of the Volga District dated May 22, 2008 in case No. A55-13840 / 07).

CASE STUDY. The representative of the company applied to the Supreme Arbitration Court with a request for a supervisory review of the case. The power of attorney for a representative attached to the supervisory appeal was issued on December 31, 2008 and is valid until March 31, 2009, while the application for review of judicial acts, according to the postmark on the envelope, was submitted to the Supreme Arbitration Court on April 1, 2009, that is, the next day expiration of the power of attorney. For this reason, the application was returned to the applicant (determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated April 15, 2009 No. 5047/09).

True, there is another position: in such a situation, the court must leave the statement of claim or complaint without movement, giving the applicant time to submit a valid power of attorney (determinations of the federal arbitration courts of the West Siberian District of 11.10.07 in case No. A45-3814 / 2007-29 / 56, Moscow District dated November 10, 2008 in case No. A40-9270 / 08-115-19). But in any case, it is risky if a representative under an expired power of attorney files a statement of claim also at the end of the limitation period or at the end of the appeal period. The fact is that the limitation period is interrupted only by filing an application in the prescribed manner, that is, when the reasons that served as the basis for returning the application or leaving it without movement are eliminated (paragraph 15 of the decision of the plenums of the Supreme Court dated 12.11.01 No. 15, the Supreme Arbitration Court dated 11/15/01 No. 18 "On some issues related to the application of the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the limitation period"). And skipping the procedural deadline for appeal due to the termination of the power of attorney is not a valid reason for restoring this deadline.

CASE STUDY. The representative of the company applied to the Supreme Arbitration Court with an application for a supervisory review of the case on the last day of the term. The application was signed on 12.10.09 and handed over to the reception of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation on 05.11.09. At the same time, the power of attorney of the representative who signed and submitted the application was valid until 15.10.09. Due to the fact that the application was filed after the expiration of the power of attorney, the Supreme Arbitration Court returned it with reference to paragraph 1 of part 1 of Article 296 of the Arbitration Procedure Code. Already outside the deadline for appeal (18.11.09), another representative of the same company, under a valid power of attorney, again filed a supervisory appeal, at the same time applying for the restoration of the missed deadline. However, the Supreme Arbitration Court also returned this application, refused to restore the time limit for appeal, considering that the reasons for its omission were not “not dependent on the applicant” (part 4 of article 292 of the APC of the Russian Federation). The company filed a second request for the restoration of the term, believing that due to the expired power of attorney, the court should not have returned the application, but left it without movement, giving time for the presentation of a valid power of attorney. Repeatedly refusing to restore the term, the Supreme Arbitration Court indicated that the applicant's position was erroneous. Leaving the application without movement is due to the elimination of doubts about the availability of authority to file it, and in this case, the authority of the representative of the company at the time of filing the application had expired. The company had enough time to complete the application and submit it in due course. By submitting the initial application on the last day of the deadline, the company itself deprived itself of the opportunity to eliminate the violation committed with the power of attorney and re-apply to the supervisory authority (determinations of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of 09.11.09, 17.11.09, 27.11.09 in case No. -56-384).

If the term of the power of attorney for representation in court expires after the initiation of proceedings on a claim or complaint, then the representative under such power of attorney is not allowed to participate in the court session. He may be present due to the openness of the court session, but is not entitled to give explanations, present evidence, etc., since he does not have the authority of a representative (Article 62 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation).

TOPIC ADVICE
Important dates that the company determines on its own (for example, the duration of the power of attorney, the performance of obligations in the contract, etc.) are best indicated in the form of specific dates.
This makes it easier to track the end of the respective deadlines. With this option, errors are not possible due to the incorrect determination of the last date of the term, as in cases where the terms are set as a period of time (in years, months or weeks).

Why does the end of the term correspond to the defining date, and not the beginning of the term

If we assume that the last day of the term should correspond not to the defining date, but to the date of the beginning of the term, then this will lead to an unjustified lengthening of the term determined by the period of time compared to the calendar flow of time. With this approach, the weekly period will be not 7, but 8 days, the annual period will not be 365, but 366 days (meaning a non-leap year). For example, suppose that the defining date for a weekly period to run is September 1 (Thursday). Accordingly, the beginning of the term is September 2 (Friday). Assuming that the end of the period corresponds to the day the period began, the weekly period expires on Friday 9 September. The period from 2 to 9 September is 8 days. If we proceed from the fact that the end of the period corresponds to the defining date, then the weekly period ends on Thursday, September 8 and is equal to 7 days.

Power of attorney to conclude a contract. If the contract is signed by the representative after the expiration of the period of his power of attorney, the courts recognize such an agreement as null and void or apply Article 183 of the Civil Code. The position on the nullity of such contracts is argued as follows: since, in violation of Article 160 of the Civil Code, the contract is not signed by a person authorized to complete the transaction, the mandatory written form is not observed. Therefore, the contract is void as contrary to the law - on the basis of Article 168 of the Civil Code (determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated 07.12.07 No. 15573/07). Another judicial position proceeds from the provisions of Article 183 of the Civil Code: if a transaction concluded by an unauthorized person is subsequently not approved by the represented person, then it is considered concluded on behalf and in the interests of the person who made it. If there was an approval, then the transaction gives rise to rights and obligations for the represented person (ruling of the Federal Arbitration Court of the North-Western District of July 16, 2009 in case No. A56-53697 / 2008).

The term of the conclusion of the main contract. The preliminary agreement indicates the period in which the parties undertake to conclude the main agreement, and if such a period is not specified in the agreement, then it is equal to a year from the moment the preliminary agreement was concluded (clause 4, article 429 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Difficulties in calculating the last day of the term may arise if this term is set in years, months or weeks - for example, the main contract must be concluded within two months from the date of conclusion of the preliminary contract. The obligations stipulated by the preliminary agreement are terminated if, before the end of the period in which the parties must conclude the main agreement, it is not concluded or one of the parties does not send the other party an offer to conclude this agreement (clause 6, article 429 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). By virtue of this rule, the proposal to conclude the main contract, made to the counterparty later than the deadline set in the preliminary contract, no longer has legal significance, even if we are talking about a one-day delay. In this case, the counterparty cannot be forced to conclude an agreement through the court (decisions of the federal arbitration courts of the Moscow District dated 06/20/07 in case No. , North-Western District of March 23, 2009 in case No. A21-2456 / 2008).

Deadline for filing claims in a bankruptcy case. In order to pay off the debt of a bankrupt company, at least in part, it is important for the creditor to present his claims in a bankruptcy case on time. This is possible at any stage of bankruptcy, but the deadline is after two months from the date of publication of information on declaring the debtor bankrupt and on the opening of bankruptcy proceedings. After this period, the register of creditors is closed (clause 1, article 142 of the Federal Law of October 26, 2002 No. 127-FZ “On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)”). The possibility of restoring this period is not provided by law.

CASE STUDY. As part of the bankruptcy case, the company applied to the arbitration court with an application to include its claims against the bankrupt in the register of creditors' claims. Information about declaring the debtor bankrupt and about opening bankruptcy proceedings were published on 09/23/06, and the creditor company applied to the court with the above statement on 11/24/06, believing that this was the last day of the two-month period. However, the court indicated that the deadline had expired a day earlier - 11/23/06, therefore, the debtor was denied the inclusion of his claims in the register (decree of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Urals District dated 05/16/07 in case No. Ф09-3563 / 07-С4).

Theoretically, creditors have the opportunity to submit their claims after the closing of the register, but in this case they are satisfied at the expense of the debtor's property remaining after the satisfaction of the claims of creditors included in the register (if these late claims do not belong to the claims of the first or second priority). Therefore, the real possibility of a late creditor to receive something according to the requirements stated after the registry was closed is actually zero.

Deadlines for detecting defects in goods or works. The buyer has the right to present claims related to defects in goods if they are discovered within the time limits specified in Article 477 of the Civil Code. An incorrect calculation of the warranty period established for the goods or the two-year period provided for in Article 477 of the Civil Code may lead to negative consequences for both the buyer and the seller.

If the buyer goes to court with claims related to defects in the goods, believing that the deadlines have been met, and the court takes a different position, then the buyer not only loses time, but also bears non-reimbursable legal costs. The seller may also find himself in the same situation if he refuses to meet the buyer's requirements, believing that the deadlines have been missed. Moreover, for the delay in the return of the money paid for the goods, the seller in this case will also have to pay interest for the use of other people's funds (Article 395 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

CASE STUDY. On July 21, 2003, the company purchased a camera worth over 30,000 rubles. The warranty period for the operation of the camera according to the warranty card was 12 months. A year later (07/21/04) the camera was handed over to the service center, because an extraneous sound appeared during its operation. Technical examination showed that the reason is a factory defect. Shortly after the repair, the same defect appeared again, and the buyer approached the seller with a demand to return the cost of the camera or replace it with a similar one. The seller company refused to comply with these requirements, believing that the defect was discovered a day after the end of the warranty period, which, in its opinion, expired on 07/20/04. However, the court upheld the plaintiff's position, considered the warranty period not missed, and recovered from the seller the cost of the camera, as well as the costs of the examination (Resolution of the Federal Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District dated 06.10.05 No. F08-4322 / 2005).

Similar situations related to liability for shortcomings in the work performed are possible for the parties to the work contract due to incorrect calculation of the timing for detecting inadequate quality of work results (Article 724 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Special rules for the duration of the contract

The length of the contract is important for many reasons. In particular, beyond this period, it is impossible to demand performance in kind from the counterparty (delivery of goods, performance of work, etc.), but you can only make claims for liability for breach of obligations (Resolution of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Far Eastern District dated July 31, 2008 No. Ф03 -A04/08-1/2956). In addition, the deadline for notifying the intention to prolong the contract for a new period is often tied to the expiration date of the contract. That is, when, under the terms of the contract, one party must notify the counterparty of the desire to prolong the contract for a certain time before its expiration, otherwise the contract is terminated. This is especially true for lease agreements (clause 1, article 621 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). If you incorrectly calculate the last day of the contract, you can skip the last day of the notice period.

Start of contract term. With regard to the term for the entry into force of the contract, a special rule applies: the contract enters into force and becomes binding on the parties from the moment it is concluded (clause 1, article 425 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Most contracts contain a similar clause. In this case, the moment of conclusion of the contract is considered to be the receipt by the person who sent the offer of its acceptance (clause 1, article 433 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Accordingly, the contract enters into force immediately on the day it is signed by both parties, and not the next day (determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated July 27, 2011 No. VAC-9042 / 11, decision of the Eighth Arbitration Court of Appeal dated October 20, 2009 in case No. A70-2800 / 26 -2007). That is, the rule of Article 191 of the Civil Code does not apply in this case. Therefore, for example, an agreement concluded on 09/01/10 with a validity period of 1 year comes into force on 09/01/10, and not 09/02/10.

Contract expiration date. At the same time, there are no special rules regarding the expiration of contracts in the Civil Code. At first glance, it is obvious that the last day of the contract from the above example, according to the rules of Article 192 of the Civil Code, is 01.09.11. But since, unlike the usual terms, the beginning of the flow of the contract and the defining date coincide, the calculation of the last date of the term in this example does not correspond to the calendar flow of time. It turns out that the one-year period (from 09/01/10 to 09/01/11) is 366 days, while 2011 is not a leap year. From the point of view of the calendar flow of time, the contract should end on August 31. This is how courts often determine lease terms. True, mainly only in cases where the lease agreement enters into force on the 1st of the month.

Rental period. If the lease agreement entered into force on the 1st day of the month, then the last day of the lease term will not be the 1st, but the 30th (or 31st) day. For example, a lease agreement was concluded on March 1, 2009 for a period of 11 months. The court concluded that the contract expired on January 31, 2010, and not February 1, 2010 (ruling of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Volga District of September 21, 2010 in case No. A57-503 / 2010). This approach prevails in judicial practice (decisions of the federal arbitration courts of the Volga-Vyatka District dated June 16, 06 in case No. A79-10425 / 2005, of the West Siberian District of November 20, 2007 in case No. A67-8129 / 06, of the Moscow District of July 22. 08 in case No. A40-37160 / 07-64-301, North-Western District dated 12/20/10 in case No. A66-2625 / 2010).

But when the lease is concluded not from the 1st of the month, the courts, as a rule, consider the term according to the usual rules. For example, the contract was concluded on November 30, 2006 for a period of 11 months. According to the court, it is valid until October 31, 2007, that is, the last day of its validity is October 30, 2007 (decisions of the federal arbitration courts of the Moscow District dated November 1, 2008 in case No. A40-65604 / 07-82-606, dated case No. KG-A40 / 5189-07, Central District of 10.23.09 in case No. A23-1011 / 09G-15-92).

What explains such a selective approach to the calculation of lease terms? Most likely, the reason is related to the position of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court regarding the lease term for the purposes of registering the contract. In paragraph 3 of the information letter of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated January 11, 2002 No. 66, it was indicated: the term of the building (structure) lease agreement, determined from the 1st day of any month of the current year to the 30th (31st) day of the previous month of the next year , for the purpose of applying paragraph 2 of Article 651 of the Civil Code (that is, for the mandatory state registration of the contract) is recognized as equal to a year. It is possible that the courts automatically extended this approach to calculating the lease terms to any cases, including when disputes are not related to the need to register the contract, and also when the term of the contract is not determined by specific dates, but is set in years or months from the date of conclusion of the contract, or transfer of the leased property.

Terms of other contracts. The situation considered by the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court concerned only the term of the lease agreement; there are no similar explanations for the terms of other agreements. In addition, in letter No. 66 dated 11.01.02, no detailed explanation was given why the term was considered that way. Although the phrase that the term of the contract, defined from 06/01/2000 to 05/31/01, "is exactly one year", indicates that the court proceeded from the calendar flow of time. At first glance, this does not comply with Article 192 of the Civil Code. In fact, there is no contradiction. The fact is that this article, as mentioned above, does not explain what is considered the “relevant date” and “relevant month” for determining the end of the term, what these indicators should correspond to. But if we proceed from the fact that they must correspond to the calendar flow of time, then everything falls into place - both for determining the usual terms and for the terms of the contracts. Moreover, the terms of any contracts, and not just leases, should be determined in this way, and regardless of the date from which they begin to operate. If, for example, the contract was concluded on 09/05/10 for a period of 1 year, then the last day of its validity should be 09/04/11. Judicial practice so far adheres to this position only in relation to lease agreements (moreover, concluded on the 1st day) only because the corresponding explanation of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court was given in relation to the lease and on a specific example. But it is quite possible that the situation will change due to the entry into force of the Federal Law of 03.06.11 No. 107-FZ “On the Calculation of Time”, which now legally fixes obvious things: a calendar week is a period of time from Monday to Sunday lasting 7 calendar days, calendar year - a period of time from January 1 to December 31 with a duration of 365 or 366 (leap year) calendar days (Article 2 of Law No. 107-FZ), etc. At the same time, paragraph 2 of Article 3 of Law No. 107-FZ establishes that the provisions of federal laws and other normative legal acts of the Russian Federation concerning the legal basis for calculating time shall be applied to the extent that they do not contradict this law. Taking into account this norm, a weekly period, determined for the purposes of civil law, cannot exceed 7 days, a yearly period cannot exceed 365 days (if the year is not a leap year), etc.

But, given that there is no judicial practice of applying the norms of the law "On the Calculation of Time" for the purposes of civil law terms, in order to avoid confusion with the calculation of the terms of the contract, it is more convenient to define it with specific dates, rather than specifying a period of time.

Colleague experience

Elena Lebedeva, Managing partner of the legal center "Megapolis Legal":

“In practice, it happened that the representative was not allowed to participate in the case, since his power of attorney was issued directly on the day of the court session (for example, 05/20/11) and the period was determined not by specific dates, but by indicating a period of time (for example, within three years ). The judge, referring to Article 191 of the Civil Code, pointed out that the validity of the power of attorney begins the day after the calendar date that determines the start of the power of attorney, that is, in this case, the power of attorney will begin to operate only on May 21, 2011.

QUESTIONS ON THE TOPIC
The term of the contract is set "until December 31". Will the last day of the contract be December 30 or 31?
From the point of view of a literal interpretation of such wording on the term, the contract is valid until December 30 inclusive. The date indicated after the preposition "before" is not included in the period determined by the contract (decisions of the Federal Arbitration Court of the North-Western District dated May 03, 2011 in case No. A52-4169 / 2010, of the Nineteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal dated January 31, 2008 in case No. A64-3246 /07-20).

What are the consequences of missing the deadline for filing a claim if a claim procedure is mandatory for the parties to the contract?
For the delay in sending a claim to the counterparty, as well as for any other violation of the claim procedure, during the subsequent consideration of the dispute in court, the court may attribute the legal costs to the overdue party, regardless of the results of the consideration of the case (part 1 of article 111 of the APC of the Russian Federation, ruling of the Supreme Arbitration Court dated 23.08. 10 No. BAC-10732/10).

How are dates defined in days calculated?
The Civil Code does not contain special rules for determining the end of such periods. The course of such periods also begins on the next day after the date or event that determines the beginning of the period (Article 191 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), and for obvious reasons, there are no difficulties with determining the last day of the period.

Evgenia Yakovleva, leading expert of the magazine "Lawyer of the company"