The High Court of Cassation and Justice has ruled that GO no. 51/1997 on the leasing operations and the leasing companies sets some special provisions regarding the juridical status of leasing contracts, which is not that of a loan operation. Thus, sale and leaseback operation, as it is stipulated in art. 22 of GO no. 51/1997, cannot be assimilated with the loan agreement, because, even though it somehow bears a resemblance to the classical form of the loan contract, from a legal standpoint, there still are two different types of contracts. When talking about bank credits, there is the client who is entitled to receive some determined amount of money from the financial institution, while, when choosing a leasing contract, the lessor is not supposed to give money to the lessee, but, instead, he funds the acquisition of an asset, that is, later on, delivered to the lessee, in order to possess and use it temporarily. Accordingly, the High Court considers that the provisions which govern the loan agreement does not apply to the leasing contract, given the fact that these are not one and the same contract, conclusion which leads to the fact that it is impossible for the annulment of contractual clauses to be brought into discussion on the basis of the assimilation of the two contracts. (Decision no. 2786 of the 30th of September 2014 pronounced in recourse by Civil Section II of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, covering the topic of absolute nullity of a leasing contract).
:: The Source: JURIDICE.ro
