VORDINGBORG: The Eastern High Court has acquitted Vordingborg Municipality of a claim to pay almost DKK 825,000 in compensation to a citizen who was dissatisfied with the progress of the municipality's sale of a plot of land at Klintholm Harbour on Møn. The High Court thus confirms a judgment from the District Court.
But this is solely because the citizen is not assessed to have suffered a loss. The High Court actually believes that the municipality has acted "manifestly unethical" and "in a manner that gives rise to liability".
The case concerns the plot of land Thyravej 16, which was sold to the wind turbine company MMA Offshore, which wanted to build a crew hotel on the plot. The company and the municipality had already entered into a lease agreement for a port area, which was conditional on MMA Offshore being able to obtain a building permit for the hotel construction.
Desire for a service port
According to the High Court's judgment, there is no doubt that the municipality had "a strong political desire to make Klintholm Port attractive as a service port for wind turbine operators who were building offshore wind turbines in the area at Klintholm."
There is also no doubt that before the tender, the municipality had entered into a conditional purchase agreement with a property company with the same owners as MMA Offshore, and that the municipality's executive board expected that it would not be necessary to conduct a public tender.
Mayor Mikael Smed (S) told the other interested buyer along the way that the municipality did not intend to conduct a tender, and that if the property did come up for tender, the municipality would arrange it in such a way that the municipality achieved the result it wanted.
This is evident from an audio recording that the interested buyer secretly made of the conversation.
Expression of abuse of power
"Mayor Mikael Smed's statements are an expression of abuse of power, and the High Court finds that it must therefore be incumbent on Vordingborg Municipality to demonstrate that the municipality has not taken into account improper considerations or otherwise acted irresponsibly in organizing and implementing the tender," the judges write.
They also point out that the property was only put up for sale three months after the municipality's lawyer had pointed out that it was going to be put up for tender, and with an offer deadline of just two weeks. In addition, the processing of the hotel construction case continued while, just as the municipality also entered into a rental agreement for a berth and berth with another offshore company, which was conditional on the construction of the crew hotel.
"The High Court finds that Vordingborg Municipality has thereby acted manifestly unfairly and has thereby favored MMA Offshore in violation of the principle of equality. The setting of the tender deadline of just 14 days and a construction deadline of six months also gave MMA Offshore an unfair advantage under the present circumstances," the judges write.
After that, the only reason why the plaintiff did not receive compensation was that statements from experts did not give reason to believe that she had suffered any loss.
But since the plaintiff "has won the most significant part of the case" and has been unfairly placed, the municipality must pay her legal costs.
Mayor is annoyed
The verdict is at the municipal council meeting on Wednesday the 18th as an informational matter.
To Sjællandske Nyheder, Mikael Smed says that he is annoyed that the high court assesses his words as abuse of power.
- I am upset about the way it is perceived, and the way the words came out in that conversation. What I would have liked to have said was that we, as a municipality, set criteria when we were going to make a tender. It was to find a buyer who could live up to the ambitions of creating growth and jobs on Østmøn, he says, adding that it was not he alone who could decide who would win the tender.
Municipal director Kristina Koch Sloth tells the media that the municipality believed it had complied with the applicable rules and that it will try to learn from the case.
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