Post-COVID Syndrome as a Defect of a Transaction Through the Example of a Mortgage Agreement

Abstract

Introduction: currently, society is faced with a very important and urgent task: formatting the established foundations of civil circulation with the participation of individuals in connection with the manifestation of the negative consequences of a new coronavirus infection. Representatives from the medical community have stated that the emergence of a new disease can have negative consequences for a person’s mental health. The concern of law enforcement officers is caused by the fact that over the past 3–5 years, the cases of court proceedings for invalidation of a transaction on the grounds of Article 177 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation have become more frequent, as committed at the time of ignorance and misunderstanding of the consequences of the transaction not related to the indicators of the individual’s legal capacity as a whole. Undermining the stability of civil circulation, especially in terms of concluding and executing transactions, increases when one of the parties is a capable citizen who, due to a previous coronavirus infection, has deviations from a normal mental state (post-COVID syndrome). The potential for nullifying such transactions and, subsequently, disrupting the dynamics of civil circulation highlights the necessity for the development and implementation of a set of methods and mechanisms that are not primarily legislative in nature but rather focus on flexible enforcement. These methods and mechanisms should be designed to address the negative manifestations, including those caused by the deterioration of an individual’s mental health following a SARS-CoV-2 infection, in the context of significant structural changes in social, environmental, and economic activities. In light of the above, one of the challenges for civilists is the humane and fair application of the provisions on invalidation of the transaction due to the inability of a person to realize and bear responsibility for decisions made due to deviations from the norm of mental health as a result of a coronavirus infection. Of particular importance in the light of the issue under study is the analysis of judicial practice, which allows studying the specifics of law enforcement on this issue and identifying blocks of perspectives in the judicial review of such disputes, taking into account the opinions of representatives of medicine focused on identifying negative consequences in human mental health. Thus, to a greater extent in the practice of civil law than in science, there is a need to formulate the problems of the legal regulation of invalidation of a transaction on the grounds of Article 177 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and propose fair, wise, and objective ways to resolve judicial conflicts, which is the purpose of the study. Methods: the methodological framework for the study is a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which the main ones are analysis, synthesis, generalization, and comparative jurisprudence. Results: the author has studied the judicial practice of modern times on the issue of invalidation of transactions through the example of a mortgage agreement. The analysis has made it possible to recognize that the consequences of a coronavirus infection can affect the psychiatric and mental state of a legally capable person in such a way that the person is unable to realize and understand the consequences of the actions performed. The main result is the conclusion that within the framework of resolving the issue of invalidation of the transaction due to the inability of a person to realize the consequences of his actions, it is necessary to consider in detail the arguments of the person who has applied for judicial protection, including taking into account those medical indicators that normally do not affect the legal capacity of an individual but have a negative effect on mental health.