Civil Appeal 1463/22 The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem v. Himanuta Ltd.

Civil Appeal 1463/22

Civil Appeal 1467/22

President Yitzhak Amit:

Himanuta in a tax dispute and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, two victims of a large-scale real estate transaction based on fraud and forgery, negotiated with each other with the aim of bringing the dispute to an end out of court.  Did the two enter into a binding agreement? Insofar as an agreement is made, has it been violated by the Patriarchate? And what is the remedy to which Himanuta is entitled? These are the main questions before us.

Factual Background

1. Monday Appeals against the judgment of the Jerusalem District Court (the Honorable Judge M. Bar-Am) from 14.12.2021 in a civil case 48074-06-11, [Nevo] in which it was determined that the appellant made other municipal requests 1463/22 (Hereinafter: The Patriarchate) breached the duty of good faith in the negotiations, and therefore, will compensate the appellant for other municipal requests 1467/22 (Hereinafter: Himanuta) in subsistence damages in the amount of $13 million.
2. In 2000, one of the most sophisticated and wide-ranging fraud cases in the State of Israel exploded - a real estate transaction for the purchase of about 520 dunams located in the neighborhoods of Rehavia and Talbiyeh in Jerusalem. The land, which was owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, was previously leased by the Jewish National Fund (hereinafter: KKL-JNF) for a period of 99 years and their lease is expected to expire in the years 2051-2052.  A real estate businessman and two others (hereinafter: The Scammers) saw this as a business opportunity, and created a false representation to the authorities that the Patriarchate was interested in making a real estate transaction.  According to the proposal, the Patriarchate would lease the land to the JNF for an additional period of 999 years in exchange for a total of $16 million.

The deal did come to fruition.  Himanuta, a company controlled by the JNF, transferred $20 million to the fraudsters - $16 million for the real estate and $4 million for the transaction costs.  It should already be noted that the money never reached the Patriarchate.  In return, Himanuta received the transaction documents, supposedly signed in the patriarch's handwriting, whose approval is required for the execution of real estate transactions to which the Patriarchate is a party, as well as signed with the Patriarch's seal and the Patriarchate's seal.  Subsequently, and based on the transaction documents, a warning note was written in favor of Himanuta over the ownership rights of the Patriarchate in the land.  Fortunately, unlike the "king's ring" in which the seal is "not returned" (Megillat Esther 8:8), what is sealed with the patriarch's seal can be returned, and when the patriarchate became aware of the registration of the warning note, it filed a lawsuit in 2000 with the Jerusalem District Court for declaratory relief according to which it was not tied to Himanuta in a real estate transaction (hereinafter: The Patriarchate's Claim).  At the end of the proceeding, sometime in 2013, the District Court ruled that the entire transaction was based on fraud and forgery, and that "no real transaction was made between the plaintiffs and Trustee, the transaction documents lacked binding legal validity, and Trustee did not acquire any right by virtue of them."T.A.  (District 10-m) 2307/00 His Holiness the Greek Orthodox Patriarch N.  Rabinovich, paragraph 68 [Nevo] (23.12.2013)).