The court issued different copies of the decision: The Supreme Court explained when the appeal deadline will be restored

The applicant’s missing the deadline for appealing a court decision, caused by the first instance court issuing contradictory copies of court decisions and restricting access to the decision in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions (USRCD) without proper documentary confirmation that the parties received the correct copy, is grounds for restoring the missed deadline. This conclusion was made by the panel of judges of the First Judicial Panel of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court.

Positions of the courts of first and appellate instances

On 19.09.2025, the investigating judge denied the complaint of the acting commander of the military unit under Articles 303-307 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The representative of the military unit appealed this decision and requested the appellate court to restore the deadline for appealing this decision.

By ruling dated 13.02.2026, the appellate court refused to restore the missed deadline, since according to the cover letter in the case materials dated 21.10.2025, a copy of the investigating judge’s ruling was sent to the representative of the military unit, but the latter filed the appeal only on 11.02.2026.

In the cassation appeal, the representative of the military unit stated that a copy of the ruling was received by the military unit’s email on 17.09.2025. During verification by the military unit of data from the State Bureau of Investigation against the data contained in the USRCD, it was found that the mentioned ruling did not exist, but instead there was another investigating judge’s ruling dated 16.09.2025 denying the complaint of the military unit.

Also, the USRCD contains information about restricted access to the court decision in the specified proceeding based on the court’s letter dated 19.09.2025. The military unit became aware of the existence of the disputed investigating judge’s ruling on 13.01.2026 and filed a request for a copy on 20.01.2026, which the court sent on 26.01.2026 and was received by the military unit on 29.01.2026, after which the representative of the military unit filed an appeal.

Position of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court

The appellate court’s ruling was canceled and a new hearing was scheduled in the appellate court.

The panel of judges of the Commercial Cassation Court considers the appellate court’s refusal to restore the appeal deadline based on the applicant’s obligation to monitor court decisions as unfounded, since such an obligation could arise only in the absence of the investigating judge’s decision, while a copy of the ruling granting the complaint and deciding in favor of the applicant was sent by the court to the military unit’s email address.

From the USRCD it is evident that access to the ruling dated 16.09.2025 was restricted based on the letter dated 19.09.2025 as it did not correspond to the original court decision due to a technical error made during its submission to the USRCD. At the same time, the investigating judge’s ruling dated 16.09.2025 denying the complaint was sent by the court on 16.10.2025, and general access to this decision was provided by the court only on 21.10.2025.

Moreover, the case materials lack any documentary confirmation that the military unit received a copy of the investigating judge’s ruling, which according to the cover letter was sent on 21.10.2025.

Given the above, it should be concluded that the applicant’s missing the deadline for appealing the court decision was caused by the actions of the first instance court, which issued contradictory copies of court decisions, and not by the applicant’s inaction.

The ruling of the panel of judges of the First Judicial Panel of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court dated 02.06.2026 in case No. 592/14858/25 (proceeding No. 51-870km26) can be viewed at this link.

Subscribe to our Telegram channel t.me/sudua and to Google News SUD.UA, as well as to our VIBER and WhatsApp pages, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay informed about the most important events.