The court continues to resolve the claim for the repair of the Kladno theater

Kladno - The dispute over a nine million crown receivable for the unfinished renovation of the Kladno theater is still being resolved by the court. The city expects the first decision in the first half of next year. Given that the insolvency trustee has denied the claim against the company that is in insolvency, this is a dispute over the determination of the authenticity of the claim, said Lenka Růžková, spokesperson for the Kladno city hall. The company from which the city is demanding money did not meet deadlines during the renovation, which is why Kladno terminated the contract in 2014 and chose another company.

The insolvency trustee completely denied the claim, arguing that, according to him, the debtor was not in default, as the obstacles that arose during the renovation could not have been anticipated, averted, or overcome by the contractor. According to the city hall spokesperson, the insolvency trustee further argued that the agreed amount of the contractual penalty is contrary to good morals and excessively high. Earlier this spring, Kladno's councilors decided that the originally demanded amount of 69 million crowns is unreasonable, thus reducing it to nine million crowns. However, some opposition councilors argued that the city has lost tens of millions of crowns in extra costs.

According to the contract between Kladno and the company CGM, which did not complete the theater renovation and went into insolvency, the city is entitled to 69 million crowns due to the delays. The city calculated the penalty based on the period of default, expecting that at worst it would take a maximum of weeks. Because the company went bankrupt, the city had to select a new contractor to complete the work, which took months due to statutory deadlines. This increased the penalty to an amount that the court could theoretically deem unreasonable. The company signed the contract with the penalty conditions, and the form of the contract, including the penalty, was also approved by the provider of European funds ROP Central Bohemia.

The theater was officially reopened in the spring of 2016 after five years. The reconstruction cost approximately 160 million crowns, most of which was covered by European grants. The equipment cost an additional 15 million. The legal proceedings regarding the determination of the authenticity and amount of the receivable continue at the Regional Court in Hradec Králové.