The Civil and Administrative Chamber of the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Armenia addressed the issue of the return of the loan (debt amount) in its decision No. SD/1171/02/15 dated December 27, 2017:
The Court of Cassation discussed the peculiarities of determining the deadline for the performance of the contract in the absence of a specified deadline in the loan agreement, reaffirming its previously expressed positions regarding the interpretation of contracts.
According to the first part of Article 880 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia, the borrower is obliged to return the received loan amount to the lender within the timeframe and manner specified in the loan agreement. In cases where the deadline for return is not specified in the agreement or is specified as upon demand, the borrower must return the loan amount within thirty days from the day the lender presents the demand, unless otherwise provided in the agreement.
The Court of Cassation noted that the expression of the parties regarding the condition of the deadline for the return of the loan amount in the loan agreement should be formulated as clearly as possible, meaning it should be specific and not contain ambiguous formulations, which in turn will allow for the most accurate calculation of the moment when the borrower's obligation to return the amount arises. Accordingly, in cases where the condition regarding the deadline for returning the borrowed amount in the loan agreement is formulated ambiguously, which does not allow for its interpretation in accordance with the provisions of Article 447 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia, the regulation provided in the second part of the first point of Article 880 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia shall apply. At the same time, the Court of Cassation recorded that the amount given as a loan is subject to return to the lender in all cases, and the agreement on the deadline for returning the loan amount in the loan agreement cannot be made directly dependent on any action by the borrower or agreed upon with their inaction. Otherwise, the borrower's obligation to return the borrowed amount may never arise, which is unacceptable in the context of loan legal relations.