The thing is from 2011 when some outcasts from the island of El Hierro, ruined by the Spanish real estate bubble, seduce Lopesan to join an alliance in civil works. The construction company from El Hierro dies and Lopesan has to do the work and, obviously, it is not his business. Result: 17 million euros must be paid, according to a final ruling to which Maspalomas24H has had access. Was it a road or something socially non-priority? Not at all: a hospital to combat infant mortality. It was the Maternal and Child Nursery at the University Hospital of Neiva. This is what Maspalomas24H told it.
The final ruling of March 24, 2024 ratifies the previous one issued on April 26, 2023. The figure was approved in the process of an incident for liquidation of material damages caused by non-compliance with the public works contract. Lopesan's defense in this procedure has existed in a very superficial way. Now the Colombian State must ask Spain to locate Lopesan funds or freeze assets in Germany, the Kingdom of Spain or the Dominican Republic to pay off the debt. The people from Fronpeca? Out of financial coverage.
The work was awarded on September 7, 2011, in a controversial public tender to the Colombian-Spanish consortium Lopesan Fronpeca during the administration of Governor Luis Jorge P. Sánchez, who served as president of the board of directors. The work began in November 2011 amid serious design problems, lack of supplies, but essentially, due to lack of resources. According to the initial schedule, the first phase was to be delivered on October 23, 2012.
The Canarian consortium had to have 60% available to carry out the works with its own resources. However, during the execution of the project it was demonstrated that the contractors did not have the financial muscle or the financial solvency to carry out a work of that magnitude, as stated in their proposal. The investments depended exclusively on the advances provided by the care center, but not on its own capital, as was agreed. Given the repeated non-compliance, the healthcare center declared the expiration of the contract on January 25, 2013, making effective the sole guarantee issued by the State Insurance Company.
The sentence is still valid. The court order forces the Spanish multinational to pay damages for breach of the contract for the construction of the highly complex healthcare center. Lopesan requested annulment alleging improper notification. The request was not successful. "Up to this moment, in the instance of the process being studied, there are no reasons to warn that the cause of nullity invoked due to improper notification of the order admitting the claim or its location has been established," said judge Enrique Dussán Cabrera in the beautiful and correct Spanish that Colombians always use.
The sentence was decreed on March 8, 2022 when the Spanish consortium Lopesan Fronpeca was declared to have breached the contract and was sentenced to jointly pay the damages. The architectural complex was to be executed in one year. According to the original schedule, the first phase was to be delivered on October 23, 2012. However, it was 41,40% complete. The lawsuit was admitted on September 15, 2015 and seven years later it declared breach of contract and ordered the Spanish investors to cancel the damages in the abstract, which involved hiring a technical expert report to quantify the damages. The study was delivered on June 28, 2022.
