Zoco Pozuelo shopping mall gets backing of Spanish Supreme Court in decisive process

Cuatrecasas has advised Zoco Pozuelo shopping mall before the Civil Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court in a process on which both the viability of the shopping mall and that of its owners and employees depended. The resolution has ended a lengthy process that started with a first-instance judgment detrimental to the shopping mall's interests. This is because, despite recognizing its rights to earn almost €1 million in unpaid owner association fees by the counterparty (one of the mall's premises), the shopping mall was ordered to pay more than €5 million (plus interest) in compensation for allegedly not having certain urban planning permits.

 After the firm assumed its defense, the first-instance judgment was revoked by the Madrid Provincial Court, which reduced the sentence against the shopping mall to less than €500,000. Recently, the Supreme Court also dismissed the extraordinary appeal for procedural infringement as well as the cassation appeal filed by the counterparty against the second-instance judgment, which was confirmed in its entirety.

 Leading the advisory service was Fernando María Alejandre, a member of the Cuatrecasas Cassation and Special Appeals Group, who said: “The importance of the case lies in the fact that, in addition to the enormous economic impact that an unfavorable ruling could have for the client, the future of the shopping mall itself was at stake. The Supreme Court’s ruling has ensured the viability of the shopping mall and its premises, as well as the continuity of all its employees.” 

 The technical complexity of the case and the difficulties derived from assuming the defense of the shopping mall in the second instance make the Supreme Court’s ruling a major success for the firm’s Cassation and Special Appeals Group, formed in this case by José María Macías and Fernando M. Alejandre. It also ratifies the great work previously carried out by the Madrid Litigation and Arbitration Practice, led by Ricardo Echevarría de Rada, Fernando M. Alejandre and María Pérez de Prada.