Individuals are entitled to compensation from the State (even from a small town council)

The word “State” sounds very distant, as does the term “Public Administrations”. But so that we understand how close this right is to us, the State is also the small Town Council of your town, or of your village, which indeed has an obligation to pay compensation for any harm suffered –by a private individual- as a result of the normal or abnormal functioning of its public service.

To put it simply: whether it acts or functions normally or abnormally, if it causes harm to a private individual it must pay compensation. It may even be the case that the Town Council is acting lawfully and its activity is permitted by law, but if its works, its actions, its pavement, its square, its tree…its water, its sewers, its buses harm or damage the victim, it is obliged to pay compensation.

There are three requirements:

1) The damage must be real, and that damage must be quantifiable.

2) The damage must have occurred as a result of the functioning of that Town Council, its property, its services, its works, its trees, its buses, its water network, its lifts….through its officials, …etc…

3) The damage must not be caused by force majeure.

However small or modest the Town Council may be, we must bear in mind that there is almost always an insurer which, through a policy, covers that Town Council’s civil liability.

We could cite hundreds of “jargon-filled” references …..the Constitution, ….the Act on the Legal Regime and Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, the rules on the financial liability of the Administration for the malfunctioning of its services …but this is neither the place nor is it relevant….

What matters is that we can welcome with satisfaction a recent Judgment obtained by this firm in an Administrative Court (Juzgado de lo Contencioso-Administrativo) in an Andalusian provincial capital, concerning a very small and modest village whose Town Council built a square without taking into account the run-off produced by rainfall. The water was channelled “any old how”, with the result that it gradually seeped into a house, also a modest one, bordering the little square; so that, silently, it reached the foundations and the house collapsed. Its equally modest occupants had to leave the house because of the danger. The house was admittedly old, but the cause was the badly channelled water.

They lodged complaints with the Town Council; it would not listen, arguing that it was not its fault. They even went on television. The reporters filled an afternoon of their sensationalist programme, but the owners still got nothing. Now, fortunately, the Administrative Court has found that the damage is real, that its cause was the poor planning of the rainwater drainage of the square; that the rain is not force majeure, and consequently it has ordered the Town Council to pay; but, more importantly, its insurance company has also been ordered, -which, incidentally, also tried to wriggle out of it-, to pay generous, but fair, compensation covering all the costs of demolishing and rebuilding the house. Justice has fortunately been done.

If you would like more information.

www.dpcon.es