The newspaper The Provinces collects in its edition today the opinion of the experts of Tomarial Abogados and Tax Advisors in an article entitled: «Companies and individuals may demand compensation for the damage caused by the state of alarm ». The news gathers the point of view of our office, about which he already wrote a article in this blog Juan Antonio Soriano, director of counsel at Tomarial.
The news explains the possibility of a flood of lawsuits against the Administration for the damages suffered, both by individuals and companies, as a result of the measures taken by the Government due to COVID-19. The Provinces cites the opinion of Juan Antonio Soriano, “who underlines the right to demand compensation from the Administration in case of having been seriously affected by its management of the health crisis. For example, due to the death of a family member, contagion in a health environment due to the lack of means of protection or the damage suffered by companies and the self-employed during the state of alarm in force in Spain since mid-March ”.
The Valencian newspaper also collects the opinion of Antonio Ballester, the managing partner of Tomarial: "there are already people who are considering filing claims for patrimonial liability of the State Administration, both companies and individuals." Ballester considers that force majeure will not exonerate the Administration: "In this case, force majeure may be exceeded because there are warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the Spanish State, in February, of the risk of pandemic", as well as actions that it considers punishable. "Force majeure is when there is an earthquake, a fire or an atmospheric accident that cannot be foreseen, here it seems that there were objective elements to warn that this circumstance could occur and, consequently, measures should have been taken earlier" .
Antonio Ballester foresees legal actions against the Administration through criminal and also civil law: "The claims for patrimonial claim are going to take place, in fact, it is something that is already being studied" by those who have lost a relative and the companies that feel disadvantaged. And it cites the hospitality industry as a relevant case, due to the forced closure. In addition, it also considers victims of this sector to be those who bought merchandise, hoping to reopen their doors in Valencia today for going to phase 1.
From this link you can read the full article in Las Provincias.
