- The Provincial Court of Gipuzkoa acquitted Mondragon on the basis of the statute of limitations and ratifying the judgment handed down by the Bergara court in July 2018. Ordaindu and Eskuratu, for their part, consider that there was no deceit reported. Mondragon has shown his "satisfaction" with the judgment, while Ordaindu and Eskuratu have said it demonstrates the "lack of sensitivity" of the courts, as they have indicated.
The Court has dismissed the appeal brought by Ordaindu in its entirety and has confirmed the limitation laid down in the judgment of Court No. 1 of Bergara. The judgment analysed the merits of the case and pointed out that the complainants had prior information on the financial situation of the cooperative.
On July 27, 2018, Bergara’s Court of First Instance No. 1 dismissed the lawsuit brought by the Ordaindu/Eskura associations against the Mondragon Corporation. On 7 September of the same year, the Ordaindu and Eskuratu associations decided to appeal and today the ruling of the Provincial Court of Gipuzkoa has been known.
The Provincial Court ruled in favour of Mondragon on the grounds that no deceit had been committed. Mondragon has shown his "satisfaction" with the judgment, while Ordaindu and Eskuratu have said it demonstrates the "lack of sensitivity" of the courts, as they have indicated. Furthermore, as the associations have reported, they will decide in the assemblies to be held in the coming days whether or not to bring an action before the High Court of Justice.
Review of Mondragon
Mondragon valued the new sentence "very positively", "because the arguments defended from the start have been ratified" and stated the following: "Mondragon did not fool the plaintiffs, because cooperatives are autonomous and sovereign and their responsibility is to make future decisions, without the involvement of anyone else," he added.
Valuation of Paid and Purchased
After hearing the ruling, they have shown their "dismay and dismay" over what happened in the Ordaindu and Eskuratu case, and have shown their "indignation and indignation". As they have said, the courts have shown "a lack of sensitivity" towards a collective "deceived" by the Mondragon Group: "We all gave everything for the Mondragon Corporation and now it has left us pulled, with the support of the judicial system: we were fooled to keep our savings in the two companies and meanwhile the managers pulled out their investments without any hindrance," both associations denounce.
The members of Ordaindu and Eskuratu will decide in their assemblies in the coming days whether or not they wish to appeal to the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country. In this sense, the directors of the associations have stressed that the ruling of the Provincial Court of Gipuzkoa has "obvious contradictions" and "rejected any documentation confirming that the legal action was not prescribed".