The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has ordered the Canary Government to initiate a process to hold Endesa responsible for the malfunction that left a resident of Adeje without electricity for four months.
The citizen lost this service due to a confusion over the address where the supply was cut off, requested by another consumer.
On 16 July 2019, the then-called Directorate General of Industry and Energy issued a resolution dismissing the claim made by the affected party, considering that “there is no breach of the current regulations by the electric company in question”.
Once the agreement was notified to the resident on 30 August, it was challenged, and subsequently upheld, leading the citizen to take the matter to court for the company to be declared responsible and a fine of €13,605 plus interest to be imposed.
The TSJC described the autonomous government’s argument of blaming the resident as “specious”, as they deemed the resident to be “abandoned”, given that the cut was made by the company at the request of the owner of another property without presenting any evidence that he was the actual owner.
“Consequently, the entity does not have a single document to substantiate the change of user and the right to carry it out,” states the ruling.
The company, as it benefits financially from this service, is held responsible for not having “the utmost diligence in its duties, therefore there exists a presumption of fault or objective liability”.
Consequently, the annulled resolution “unduly” exempts the company from its responsibility for an improper electricity supply cut, which lasted four months, and the TSJC mandates the initiation of the sanctioning procedure.
