Court dismisses depositors’ case against Bank of Cyprus

The Nicosia District Court threw out a case on Wednesday brought against the Bank of Cyprus for the haircut on depositors’ savings in 2013, an announcement said.

In their decision, the court said that because of the measures taken at Bank of Cyprus, the depositors found themselves in a better position than they would have been if Bank of Cyprus had been placed in liquidation.

“No damage has been proven by the plaintiffs who were given shares of a similar nominal value, while…to establish damage any reduced value would have to be proven, given the duty on the part of the plaintiffs to mitigate the damage,” the court said.

The court also stated that it judged such reasons of public interest and financial stability were indeed present without, the data presented before the court by the depositors, allowing a conclusion on the existence of a violation of the constitutional principle of equality.

According to the court, the depositor-bank relationship is a creditor-debtor relationship. In other words, according to the supreme court, “with the deposit, the depositor ceases to have ownership status in the specific money and now has an equal debt of the bank towards him, to his credit. Therefore, with the return of the above-mentioned shares, it becomes evident that no influence, reduction, or deprivation of the property of the plaintiffs has been proven.”

The court dismissed all the plaintiffs’ claims and awarded costs to the defendants.