The Supreme Court awaits the arrival in the coming weeks of thousands of property claims due to malfunctioning of the public administration during the pandemic. The Executive has chosen not to process these complaints administratively and threatens to short-circuit to the high court that you will have to start from scratch in each of them. Legal sources consulted raise them to plus 4,500 and they assure that, in the current state of the Third Chamber, diminished by the lack of appointments, its management is practically impossible.
According to these sources, the Executive has opted for the administrative silence and the period of six months fixed to resolve them is about to end. After this period, it is understood that the request for compensation requested by the individual who promotes them has been rejected and the possibility of direct appeal before the high court is opened. The claims are the result of the damage caused by the measures adopted during the first and second states of alarm and, for the most part, have been filed by those sectors that were fully affected, such as hospitality, commerce and leisure. Bankrupt businesses forced to close, economic losses to establishments due to the different restrictions, delays in health care… An amalgamation of situations that are about to flood the TS, which He fears that he will not be able to serve them.
A change of judges in the Supreme Court opens a loophole for appeals against pardons
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The Contentious-Administrative Chamberto which the claims will arrive, is one of the most affected both due to the dismissal of magistrates who are not being replaced as a result of the legislative reform that prevents the acting General Council of the Judiciary from doing so, and due to the increase in litigation caused by the pandemic. From last 2017 to 2021, there has been a progressive increase in the cases that have been arriving. Last year they exceeded 9,000 and, according to the sources consulted, it is only the beginning of the avalanche that is expected.
Beyond the complaints that they will have to deal with, this very Chamber has already suffered the increase in work caused by the pandemic. It is the Third Chamber that assumed the appeals against judicial resolutions adopted by the superior courts of Justice on the authorization or ratification of sanitary measures. Matters that have had to be dealt with urgently at an already considerable cost for the magistrates that comprise it, who, moreover, they are less and less.
The entry of issues has already begun to occur. The legal sources consulted speak of the arrival in recent weeks of “dozens of direct resources” and warn that it is only the beginning. From the departments of government responsible for managing this type of complaint, the notice has already been given. The probability that they will be promoted “thousands of demands” it is more a close reality than a fear.
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The Chamber has already launched a distress call and called for reinforcements, but, at least for now, the Executive has not responded as expected. Specifically, they have requested a new Secretariat, with a lawyer from the Administration of Justice and the appropriate official staff, as well as the provision of at least three positions of lawyers coordinators in the Technical Cabinet of the court to be provided by magistrates of the contentious-administrative jurisdictional order.
Starting next April, with the retirements of the magistrates Rafael Fernandez Valverde and Segundo Menendez, will have only 25 magistrates (including its president), which is the legal minimum to constitute its five sections, since each of them must have at least five magistrates. Thus, it has been approved to reinforce the two sections that, after these retirements, they will be left with only four members (the Second and the Fifth) with one magistrate each, who will come out of the two sections that have six magistrates (the Third and the Fourth).
Justice’s denial
All hopes are pinned on the meeting to be held next Tuesday with the General Council of the Judiciary and the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop. The Government’s discomfort with the CGPJ as a result of its critical report on the housing law caused the first scheduled meeting to be suspended and the prospects are not very hopeful for the TS after Justice denied a few days ago the request to add five magistrates support to the Technical Office of the judicial body in the Civil Area despite the warning of “collapse” in the face of the “avalanche” of resources anticipated. Sources from the department led by Pilar Llop have assured that the budget for 2022 is almost fully committed.
While all this is happening, the PP and the PSOE continue to postpone a renewal of the Council, which is already much more than urgent, but it continues to be postponed with no end in sight to the situation. At the end of February, the Supreme Government Chamber will meet again and some magistrates are already considering raising the tone of the warnings they have been issuing up to now and even involving the European Union to try to tackle the problem.