Kosta Mesarovic,
Attorney-at-Law in Belgrade

ALTERATION OF PETITION IN TRESPASSING DISPUTES

The Petition is altered when the Petitioner changes some of the important elements of the submitted Petition in the lawsuit, so that the changed Petition is no longer identical with the original one.

The important elements of the Petition are: Lawsuit Parties, Petition Request and Base. It is sufficient that one of the important elements is changed so that the Alteration of Petition takes place.

The possibility for this Lawsuit is subscribed in Articles 190-191 of the Civil Proceedings Act.

The Regulation of the Article 438 of the Civil Proceedings Act subscribes that the Regulations of this Act will be applied in the lawsuits due to trespassing. This means that the submitted request for the trespassing can be altered as all the others.

The only difference with this Alteration of Petition is that it can only be altered under the conditions subscribed in the Article 77 of the Property and Legal Relations Act, i.e. 30 days from the day of informing about trespassing and performer, not later than one year after the trespassing.

The Petition submitted due to trespassing can be altered both objectively and subjectively.

Objective Alteration of Petition. In the disputes due to trespassing, regarding their specifications about the time limit period for the Petition, the Alteration of the Petition becomes very complicated when the Petitioner in the Petition makes a petition request, and during the procedure, together with the existing one makes another petition request (second act of trespassing), so in the particular case, the Petition is being Altered with the making of the Second Request together with the already existing one.

As with the Petition due to trespassing it must be thought about the time limit period for the submitted Petition, it means that in the case when by the existing request one more is made, it should also be thought about the time limit period for both Petition Requests.

The deadline for the first Request will be counted from the day of submitting the Petition and the deadline for the second request from the day when it was made during the procedure, i.e. from the day of the Petition Alteration, because the other act of trespassing was pointed out by the existing one.

The deadline of the new trespassing will be counted in the period of time from the day when the new trespassing took place, i.e. when it was known about the performer and the act of trespassing, to the day when the new Petition Request was made by the already existing one. Our Law Practice chose this option.

"Every repeated trespassing of the possession of things or rights is a special act of trespassing, so in the same Dispute until it is concluded, the Petition can be altered with the making of a new Petition Request to establish the repeated trespassing under the conditions that it was submitted in time limit period from Article 77 of the Property and Legal Relations Act." (Legal understanding of civil department of the Supreme Court of Serbia on the meeting dating 18^th of September, 1979).

The situation is completely different when the act of trespassing is changed and thus the Petition request is altered, i.e. when the Petitioner alters the petition request, during the procedure, with the change of authenticity of the petition because he changed the act of trespassing.

The time limit period for the Petition because of the trespassing will be counted from the day of the trespassing, i.e. when it was known about the performer and trespassing, to the changed Petition Request, i.e. to the day when the authenticity of the Request for the trespassing was changed.

Because of the long period of time needed for the procedure in the Court, the Altered Petition Request is very often not in the period of deadline, so in these cases the Petition will be rejected.

Subjective Alteration of Petition. Subjective Alteration of the Petition Request exists when the Petitioner, until the Main Hearing is concluded, alters his Petition by charging another person instead of firstly Respondent (Article 192 of the Civil Proceedings Act).

In the Lawsuits due to trespassing, considering the fact that there are deadlines for the Petition, as well as is the case with Objective Alteration, the calculating of the deadline is important.

When the Petitioner changes the Petition during the Lawsuit, because of the trespassing, in the way that instead of the first Respondent he sues a new Respondent, and when the new Respondent agrees that the Petition be altered (Subjective Alteration) and he joins the lawsuit the deadline for the Petition is counted from the day when the Petition was submitted against the first Respondent, and not from the day when the Petitioner altered the Petition. And if the time limit has passed, whether Objective or Subjective, the Petition will be rejected as not submitted till the deadline.

That would be mostly all that could be said about Alteration of Petition in trespassing disputes. There are many disputable questions in this field, so we are hoping that this report will be a useful contribution to our practicing lawyers for further discussion in the subject and finding out new, adequate solutions.