Re Cetuchinas

• Jurisdiction: Lituania
• Docket Number: Case No. 202
• Date: 15 September 1933
• Court: Supreme Court (Lithuania)

Lithuania, Supreme Court.

Case No. 202

In re Cetuchinas.

Treaties Most-Favoured-Nation Clause Meaning of Reciprocity.

The Facts.Cetuchinas, a Russian citizen, had asked leave to sue in forma pauperis Mrs. Katr Cetuchinien and others for land. The District Court of Panevys, in a decision given on June 10, 1933, dismissed the application. It based its judgment on the fact, inter alia, that the applicant was a Russian citizen, permanently resident in Moscow. Cetuchinas appealed. He contended that although no convention on judicial assistance had been concluded between Lithuania and Russia, Russian subjects were nevertheless entitled, in accordance with Article 16 of the Treaty of Peace of 1920 between Lithuania and Russia, to avail themselves of judicial assistance for poor persons. That Article provided that in case one Party to the Treaty granted to a third Party or its citizens special privileges, rights and preferences, these should without special agreement also extend to the other Party to the Treaty or to its citizens. Lithuania had concluded treaties with Czechoslovakia, Germany and France, in which she granted to the subjects of those countries privileges of judicial assistance. It was contended, therefore, that Lithuania was bound, according to Article 16 of the Treaty of Peace, to grant the same privileges to Russian subjects.

Held: that the appeal must be dismissed. It appears from the Treaties with Czechoslovakia, Germany and France, mentioned in the...