The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has sided with the San Bartolomé City Council by revoking and annulling a judgment issued by the Contentious-Administrative Court of Las Palmas, and declaring "correct, and therefore in accordance with the law, the decision of the Consistory to compensate the undue charges made by Banca March for the amount of 158,967.87 euros", according to the same.
The mayoress of San Bartolomé, María Dolores Corujo, recalls that the procedure began "as a result of the charges derived from a financial operation inherited from previous corporations." The City Council considered those charges "undue", caused by a product known as a swap, since the clauses contained in this type of financial instruments had been annulled on several previous occasions by different courts.
Due to this, the secretary of the City Council officially instructed a procedure, resolved by the Plenary, through an agreement approved in a session held on June 30, 2014. As a consequence of this procedure, and on the recommendation of the municipal secretary, the Plenary agreed to compensate the money unduly charged by Banca March with the amount owed by the corporation to the aforementioned bank, as a consequence of a loan for investments.
Now, according to what the City Council has announced, the TSJC has endorsed the legal arguments put forward by the secretary of the City Council, "who maintained from the beginning that, since it was a matter of public debt, compensation could be made ex officio, after hearing from the interested party." Such a decision meant that the administration would not have to go to the civil courts to recover said amount of money.
Hopes that another procedure with Banco Santander will conclude in the same way
The mayoress of San Bartolomé, María Dolores Corujom, has expressed her "satisfaction for this new judicial success of the San Bartolomé City Council", which means that the Consistory will not have to return the 158,967.87 euros deducted from the Banca March loan.
"Our satisfaction is even greater when considering that it sets an important precedent. In the same situation is a procedure with Banco Santander in which we compensated 1,572,175.21 euros and this ruling makes us foresee, also, a favorable result for public funds," she concluded.
