Court Decision granted in favor of the buyers in Almanzora Country Club (Huma Mediterraneo). Murcia Appeal Court confirmed ruling against Popular Bank.

The good news continues for those affected by the purchase of properties at the Almanzora Country Club. The Provincial Appeal Court of Murcia, in a judgement issued on 10^th of March 2016, and recently notified to our office, has confirmed the judgment we won before the court of First Instance number 4 of Totana, in the Ordinary Proceedings number 494/13.

The Provincial Court confirmed Bank Popular as the entity that had:

-opened the account in which buyers deposited their payments,

-they also granted several general bank guarantee lines in the same complex,

 and so should return buyer’s money paid to the developer Huma Mediterraneo, plus legal interest from the time when the payment took place, even though the consumers did not have an individual guarantee, all under the Law 57/68.

Whilst it is true Law 57/68 has been repealed with effect from the date of 1^st January 2016, by the Law 20/2015, regarding management, supervision and solvency of insurance and reinsurance companies, the new law change can not affect those affected by Almanzora Country Club, since the events occurred prior to the entry into force of the new law, and

 certain consumer’s rights cannot be waived, as per the general principle of non-retroactivity, noted in Article 2.3 of the Civil Code which states that "the laws have no retroactive effect unless stated otherwise”.  We therefor understand that those affected can claim under the Law 57/68.

In the court case to which we refer above, most of those affected have already had their money returned, since we had asked for the provisional execution of the judgment obtained against the Popular Bank, thereby recovering about € 300,000.

So, if you bought a property off plan in the complex Almanzora Country Club (ACC) or any other promotion, and they have not handed over the property, nor returned the money paid, you should know that you can claim for the money back from the bank or insurance company that signed the collective bank guarantee or insurance policy (even if you do not have an individual guarantee).

If there are no such guarantees or group policy, you could still claim back against the bank who opened the special account for the promoter into which the amounts paid by the buyers were deposited.

Do not hesitate, now is the perfect time to claim, if you have lost money buying a property off plan in Spain, our firm will help you, so contact us.

The information provided in this article is not intended to be legal advice, but merely conveys general information related to legal issues.

Carlos Baos (Lawyer)

White Baos Lawyer

Please give details of the person who got real MONEY back,    NOT won a case....winning case but getting no money = nothing!!!!!.....

Dear Jackb, all the clients who started the joint legal action less one of them, decided to ask for the provisional execution of the first instance court decision, which now has been ratified by the appeal court. And all those have the money paid back, now the court will need to fix the interests and legal costs to be paid by the Banco Popular. So fortunately they have a good court order in their favor plus the money. Best regards,

Does this successful appeal court ruling now act as case law against Banks' ongoing attempts to try and undermine inalienable rights as defined in Ley 57/68 for all existing claimants?

Has the Bank submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court or have 20 days to lodge any appeal now expired?

Hi ads, 

i don't know but am led to believe that there is no such thing as case law in Spain. Each case is heard on its merits.  However, the good news is that the Supreme Court has created new jurisprudence which (again I think) means that banks are indeed liable for money paid in good faith to a developers account an off plan property (this is hat law 57/68 says). This will obviously carry weight with the local courts and inform their decisions. However, you can't pre judge a case just because the facts are the same as another which found against the banks.  Each case is heard on its merits so no case law as in the UK.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Ilost.

With regard to SC jurisprudence carrying weight with local courts, isn't it only when two identical SC rulings on the same point of law are achieved that doctrine is sufficiently established?

So the question then arises, if a judge at provincial court level subsequently fails to acknowledge SC doctrine then will this be classed as a contra legem ruling, and would this require yet another appeal at SC level to achieve justice?

At what point is any of this major delay to enforcement of law ever considered to be abusive and lacking of judicial moral authority???

Unfortunately I think there is contradictory jurisprudence. Search the EoS site for jurisprudence and you will find 3 references to it in Maria's blogs including the reference to contradictory JP.

Reading your post, I suspect you know far more than I do about the legal machinations so I will let María de Castro or Carlos Baos answer your question regarding how many SC rulings are needed to form guiding jurisprudence and whether a lower court ruling that goes against the SC ruling would be deemed contra legem.

I do agree however, that deliberate delaying tactics put the liable parties in a very poor light.  If they want to continue trading on their trustworthiness, honesty and integrity, I suggest that they know which accounts money has been paid into which they have been ordered to refund under law 57/68. Therefore it is utterly indefensible to contest subsequent claims for refunds for amounts paid into the same account.  They should not wait until proceedings are issued against them.  I would go so far as to suggest that the way they are behaving is unethical.

still no news on our case heard on 12th April... we paid money into the same account as others on ACC who have recently won their cases.

Hi Jackb

I can confirm that we used White-Baos and received our money back in March 2015 after winning the case around June 2014. We went for provisional execution of the first instance court decision which meant we got our  40% deposit back less costs. The bank appealed and the hearing was in February this year. We heard last week that the bank lost their appeal and now have 20 days to submit an exception appeal to the Supreme Court. We are still therefore waiting for the interest and costs to be returned to is and this is still a substantial amount.

We are not home and dry yet but we seem to very slowly heading in the right direction. I just want an end to this now as it's been 11 years of heartache for everyone concerned.

For those who haven't started proceedings yet I would recommend White-Baos but prepared to be in for a wait as the Spanish Legal system is very slow

ilostmysenseofhuma -  I would go so far as to suggest that the way they are behaving is unethical.

I would go further and say they are CRIMINAL!!!

Has anyone had any feedback on recent cases won from solicitors regarding any appeals from the Banks, or getting money returned?

We have not heard if the bank are going to lodge an appeal with the supreme court or not. Their 20 working days are now up for them to do this so we should hopefully be hearing soon

Hi all

THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES FOR US, 11 YEARS & COUNTING…

We Heard from out solicitor today that Banco Popular have appealed against our court case that was won in February despite the supreme court ruling I keep reading about!  I don’t understand all this Spanish Legal mumbo jumbo anymore unless I’m missing something?  If the Supreme Court decision is absolute, then how can and why have Banco Popular Appealed?

When is the Sentence declared firm and final?  Has anyone else had court case won and had money returned from Banco Popular? We’re completely devastated by this, as we thought we were seeing some light at the end of the tunnel!

Regards

Vic

Can you identify the grounds on which the bank are appealing and report back so that we can all comprehend if a pattern of events is occurring here?

So you won your case in February - the banks had 20 days to appeal and your solicitor tells you today!  How appalling.  Was your case the one that wasn't awarded costs by the court?   If so is that the reason they appealed.  It is very emotional time 11 years fighting.  I am in a similar position  to you but my emails are not working so I have not heard from my solicitor today. Evidently they won't be working until Thursday so I will have to wait to then.  

We have emailed solicitor for more details on this and will let you know 

Regards

Fed Up!

Gazza

Did you win your case at Provincial court level and if so have you heard back yet if the Bank have submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court? If so could you identify the grounds on which they have done so.

Ads, 

I emailed my solicitor last week and he said he doesn't think the bank have appealed the decision in February as he hasn't heard anything. He said the court now have to set the legal interest and costs and this could be a while. We have received some money back which was our deposit less all costs. It's getting very frustrating as we've been 11 years in waiting too.

Vic, were you part of the group action with White & Baos as that's who we are with. Carlos Baos said last week he didn't think the bank had appealed.

Garry

Hi Gazza, you say you have recieved your deposit back so does that mean you are fighting for your legal costs, interest and initial deposit of 3005E?? I'm interested as I have received my deposit but never recieved anything else so am about 12,000E out of pocket. Feel free to PM me if you want to.

I've PM'd you 

I thought we had seen every " contrick " the spanish lawers/judges could come up with, but no they have more.