The Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina" has announced that it will file "immediately" a lawsuit in court against the Bishopric of the Canary Islands for the "abandonment" of the modernist house of Caleta de Famara, after the conciliation meeting held this Thursday in Gran Canaria has concluded without agreement.
The group, which was established to preserve the memory and work of Luis Ramírez, requested this conciliation meeting to demand that the Church "restore" the property or, failing that, proceed "to hand it over to the Cabildo of Lanzarote", as it claims is stipulated in the will of Luis Ramírez.
However, the Bishop of the Canary Islands, Francisco Cases, has not appeared at the conciliation meeting held before the Court of First Instance number 11 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, having done so in his name a solicitor who has presented a letter "not agreeing to the demand" and indicated that "there is no possibility of any agreement".
"We are going to file a lawsuit immediately and let the Court decide," announced after that the president of the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina", Silvano Corujo.
The "serious deterioration" of the building and the "proven neglect" of the Bishopric
According to the group, in the ninth clause of his will, Luis Ramírez bequeathed "in perpetuity" the small hotel in Famara "to the parish of the Villa de Teguise", but ordered it to be "kept in good condition", stating that "if for any reason or abandonment by its owners, said hotel tended to collapse", it would pass "entirely" to the "Hospital de Dolores de Arrecife", a health institution that "since 1913 became part of the Island Council of Lanzarote with the name of Island Hospital".
In this regard, the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina" states that the property, considered "by experts as a unique architectural jewel of the island", is "falling to pieces, posing a serious danger to neighbors, residents and passersby".
"It is sad and true that, once the possession of the aforementioned Hotelito described by the Bishopric of the Canary Islands was acquired, it never received the necessary care from it, so that, at present, its condition manifests the serious deterioration caused by the logical aggressiveness of the climate and time and, what is worse, by the proven neglect of its owners, the Bishopric of the Canary Islands, who have not done their part what was possible and committed, chronic neglect that has resulted in the consequent complaints and fair alarms, in various media, by individuals or neighborhood associations", he adds.
Thus, through the conciliation meeting, it required the Bishopric of the Canary Islands to "agree to justify, rectify and, consequently, to ensure that the property is restored" or, failing that, "to proceed to hand it over to the Island Council of Lanzarote so that it can act accordingly". If it did not agree to what was requested, the group already warned that it would initiate "the pertinent legal actions in defense of the expressed will of the deceased D. Luis Ramírez in his will".