The Court of First Instance number 4 of Arrecife has admitted for processing the lawsuit filed by the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina" against the Bishopric of the Canary Islands for the "abandonment" of the modernist house of Caleta de Famara.
The group, which was established to preserve the memory and work of Luis Ramírez, filed this lawsuit last October, after a conciliation act failed that the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina" requested to demand the Church to restore the property or, failing that, to proceed "to its delivery to the Cabildo of Lanzarote", as it states in the will of Luis Ramírez.
However, the Bishop of the Canary Islands, Francisco Cases, did not appear at the conciliation act that was held before the Court of First Instance number 11 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, doing so in his name a solicitor who presented a writing "not agreeing to the demand" and indicating that there was no possibility of agreement
A property that is "falling to pieces" and the "negligence" of the Bishopric
According to the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina", 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", ordering that it be "kept in good condition". In this regard, it is indicated that the document stated that "if for some reason or abandonment of 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 group points out that said property, considered "by experts as a unique architectural jewel of the island", "today is collapsing and 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 negligence of its owners, the Bishopric of the Canary Islands, who have not done their part what was feasible 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, after "exhausting all possible friendly avenues", the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina" asks the Justice to "declare the obligation, on the part of the Bishopric of the Canary Islands, to have kept in good condition" said property "since it took dominion over it and became legitimate owners" in 1954.
In addition, it is claimed that "if the Bishopric does not rectify its attitude in the care" of the property, given the "evident abandonment". it is declared that "it must pass entirely, and with everything that is annexed to it and belongs to it", to the Island Hospital of Lanzarote "so that it does with it what it deems appropriate".