The contractual penalty in procedural context - difficulties of court practice?

Abstract

A contractual penalty is a substantive legal institute that is also important from a procedural point of view (as a separate property claim). In particular, the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic has repeatedly addressed the issues of defining a contractual penalty in an action, maturity or limitation of the right to payment of a contractual penalty, as well as determining the correct court fee, reducing the contractual penalty by a court (as a moderating right), and the relationship of contractual penalty to the interest on late payment or to the damages.

The aim of the paper is to analyze the contractual penalty in a procedural context and to draw attention to some difficulties that courts face in their decision-making practice.

Keywords

• Contractual penalty
• corroboration of a debt
• independent property claim
• maturity of contractual penalty
• limitation of contractual penalty
• objective liability
• court fee
• moderation right of court
• damages
• penalty
• procedural context
• case law