The Supreme court has partially estimated this Thursday the appeal presented by the entities Banco Santander, CaixaBank and Bankia against the state to which they claimed compensation for damages of 1,350,729,000 euros in the Castor case. These amounts, in different percentages, had been paid by the banks to acquire the right to collect the compensation.
Financial entities they advanced in their day the compensation money to ESCAL-UGS, a company controlled by ACS, due to the cancellation of the operations of the Castor underground gas warehouse, located 21 kilometers off the coast of Vinaroz (Castellón). Subsequently, the Constitutional Court annulled the decree-law that obliged this right to collection, held by the recurring banks.
The claim for compensation was based on the responsibility of the legislating State, because that right to collect the gas system, owned by the banking entities, had been established by Royal Decree Law 13/2014, of October 3, and said norm was partially declared unconstitutional by ruling of the Plenary of the Constitutional Court in December 2014.
In this sense, the banks argued in their appeal that the declaration of unconstitutionality of the decree law had meant “not only that the corresponding payments are neglected since the publication of the sentence, but that they have been forced to return the amounts that they had already perceived. “
Judgment in favor of the bank
Now, the High Court agrees with them. Sentence estimates the resource and recognizes the right of entities to receive from the Administration the amounts they had paid to acquire the aforementioned right of collection. “There is no doubt that at the time of declaring unconstitutionality, the legitimate holders of the collection right were the three recurring banks and, therefore, the injured parties in this liability requirement must be considered. Their right does not originate from a third party who is recognized by law, but it is the law that directly makes them creditors of the payer, we insist, without any administrative or private activity “, emphasize the magistrates of the Third Chamber.
The court states that “the recurring banks, which are the current holders of the collection right, as authorized and guaranteed by the Royal Decree Law, have a credit right that has been recognized by a Law that they cannot make effective. it is well understood that this credit right is caused by a previous payment made for the same amount “.
Now, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the court has so agreedccede to the compensation “of the total debt” recognized in favor of Banco Santander entities, which will receive 50.94 percent (more than 688 million); CaixaBank, 34.05 percent (almost 460 million) and Bankia 15 percent (slightly more than 202 million).
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