Canarian Legal Alliance is very proud to announce another historical verdict from the Supreme Court, the highest legal authority in Spain. It has been a very emotional and personal battle by the lawyers at CLA, who have fought with vigor to protect the rights of clients and bring them justice throughout the past years.
It began with over 40 cases being won against Silverpoint in the Courts of First Instance, who found for those clients under the timeshare law 42/98. This was taken to appeal by Resort Properties / Silverpoint to the High Court, who then overturned many of the sentences of the lower courts arguing the non application of the law for one or another reason.
It was just necessary to ask the Supreme Court to revise these cases and give us their verdict in order to inform our clients, and many other timeshare owners about which law protects their interests as consumers.
And now, we have finally received the first verdict from the highest ranking court in Spain, proving our clients right and confirming the first instance sentence in which there contracts have been declared null and void with the corresponding refund of the fees.
The Supreme Court, overruling the opinion of the High Court of Tenerife, confirmed that one of the company’s products called Club Paradiso does fall under the timeshare legislation, even though it is a club membership without a concrete apartment number or week.
The judges, all 9 who sat down to study this case in order to have the same understanding for the future cases to come, considered that by calling it “affiliation to a club” the company can not avoid the law, as this product is timeshare, the fact that it was set up so as not to be regulated by the law, means it is in itself an infringement of it.
The magistrates pointed out the fact that the members had to pay yearly maintenance fees, this is a clear indication of the timeshare product. Not having a clear description of the acquired product as required per the article 1.7 of the 42/98 Spanish Timeshare Act the honorable judges declare the contract null and void.
This will not only affect the Club Paradiso product but many other club schemes / point systems in Spain.
Another significant milestone in this verdict is the consideration of our client as a consumer and not as an investor, once again rejecting the argument of the High Court of Tenerife in order to not to apply the timeshare law.
Without getting into details the modus operandi of Resort Properties / Silverpoint results in many contracts being signed by their members are for multiple weeks. The hope to resell them later for a profit does not make their members investors, says the Supreme Court, as they were acting outside of their profession, and it was not a regular activity.
Considering our client as a consumer the timeshare law applies, which is crucial to protect consumer‘s interests.
Both of these arguments from the Supreme Court are a new angle and will set the guidelines for the courts in the whole Spain.
At Canarian Legal Alliance we are overjoyed for writing history again in Spanish legislation, we are even more excited to be able to deliver the long sought justice to our client and of those to come.
Over the time it has taken to get this resolved and behind this achievement there are not only great lawyers and other professionals but clients who we cannot thank enough for their support.
There have been numerous attempts to slander the work of CLA, and by now we know that there are many so called consumer associations or timeshare organizations (without mentioning names), who were happy to discredit our work and kept supporting the wrongdoings of the timeshare resorts, and all that of hiding behind the mask of protecting the consumers.
We have learned from an early stage that we cannot ask for any help from them, as their real aim is to safeguard the timeshare industry and not the people who are their members.
While we were fighting our battles in the courtrooms our clients supported us, and we have fought for their rights in many other ways such as contacting journalists and even the European Union. We can never be grateful enough to all of you, for your patience and unconditional trust in us.
This trust and the verdicts handed down by the Supreme Court totally vindicate CLA’s past year’s of work.
If you think you may have a claim, feel free to contact us on +34 928 18 50 28 or click here to get in touch with us!