Lawyer Eddy Méndez Naranjo denounces what he considers a “serious and scandalous attack against the Constitution.”
When explaining the complaint, Méndez Naranjo explained that on December 4, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice approved ruling number 1,192 by which it endorses a type of expropriation of the Boulevard Plaza Los Leones Shopping Center, located in Barquisimeto (Lara).
Méndez Naranja speaks of expropriation because two courts in Lara decreed that the aforementioned property must be sold to the current landlord for 26 cents, the original price of that property when it was acquired in 2000.
Precisely the following year, the owner of the land, Janne Josefina Panico González, rented it to José Martinho Agrela Pestana. Said contract stated that Agreda Pestana could build and enjoy the rents applied to the thirty stores located in the shopping center. With that contract signed, Agreda Pestana enlarged the La Mansión del Este Refrigerator and effectively built the aforementioned shopping center.
When the contract expired, the owner of the property asked Agreda Pestana if she wanted to extend the business relationship. But, in addition, he offered both properties for sale, both the refrigerator and the shopping center.
This approach was not responded to by the tenant, which left the owner free to look for another or other buyers, explained lawyer Méndez Naranjo.
In contrast, the tenant Agreda Pestana sued the owner of the properties, under the figure of Legal Lease Retraction. ”This figure assumes that the owner sold the rented properties, which never happened, therefore, a lawsuit of that nature was not appropriate,” explained Méndez Naranjo.
But such claim was declared admissible by Court 5 of the Irribarren Municipality (Barquisimeto, Lara) under Judge Belén Beatríz Dan Colmenares, through a ruling that forced the owner of the properties to transfer said properties to the current tenant, that is, to Agreda Pestana, who has rented them since 8/9/2001 for the sum of twenty-six cents of Bolívar Soberano (Bs 0.26), the lawyer explained.
The outburst
The decision of the aforementioned municipal court was supported by the Third Superior Court for Civil, Commercial and Traffic Matters of the state of Lara, headed by Delia González de Leal.
Faced with this situation, Méndez Leal went to the Constitutional Chamber and asked its magistrates to review that decision of the Larense superior court, considering that it violates private property, among other rights enshrined in the Magna Carta.
”To our surprise, the Constitutional Chamber declared that the review was not admissible and thus endorses the decisions of the two courts of Lara that force the two properties to be sold to the tenant for 26 cents of Bolívar Soberano,” commented Méndez Naranjo.
”This ruling of the Constitutional Chamber abrogated the constitutional guarantee of the right to property for lessors of real estate for commercial use in Venezuela,” the legal professional warned.
”This decision establishes as a pernicious precedent that, although the landlord does not sell or transfer ownership of the leased property to third parties, the tenant can sue him for withdrawal and force him to transfer ownership of the property to him for the same price. that he paid when purchasing it, but devalued by monetary reconversions and without indexation, which is an outburst,” denounced Méndez Naranjo who urged the Legislative Branch to initiate an investigation about the reported incident.
