Article 171. Adjournment of court proceedings

The court may adjourn court proceeding if it is impossible to consider the case at this court session due to unforeseen and extraordinary circumstances, including:

upon a petition of a party for court assistance in conciliation procedure;

if a person participating in the case has been properly informed about the time and place of holding the court session and submitted a statement about adjournment of the proceedings with justification of his non-appearance at the court session, if the consideration of the case without the participation of this person is impossible;

on a petition of the person participating in the case in the event of non-appearance at the court session of his representative due to a valid reason;

in case of non-appearance of any of the participants of the court proceedings, if the court considers it impossible to consider the case without the participation of this person;

on a petition of the party to adjourn court proceeding due to the need to present or request additional evidence from third parties;

in case of impossibility of setting up videoconferencing at the court session held in the videoconference mode;

in case of non-appearance of any of the participants of the court proceedings and the absence of the confirmation of proper notification of the said person about the time and place of the court proceedings;

in case when it is necessary to replace the improper respondent with proper respondent;

in case when it is necessary to replace the exiting party to the disputed legal relationship with his legal successor;

in case when it is necessary to attract a second respondent or a third party to participation in the case.

The court proceedings may be adjourned for the term necessary to eliminate the circumstances, which served as grounds for the adjournment, within the limits of the time limit established by this Code for court proceedings, but for not more than ten days.

The number of adjournments of a court proceedings may not exceed three times.

A ruling shall be made on the adjournment of a court proceedings.

If the parties are present at the court session, before adjourning the court proceedings the court is entitled to interrogate the witnesses who appeared. The evidence of these witnesses shall be announced at a new court session. The secondary summon of the same witnesses to a new court session shall be made only in case of necessity.