Developer sues Brno city hall over unrealized construction

Brno - Developer Wilson Property, which wanted to build a multipurpose building Wilson in the former military area in Brno's náměstí Míru, has filed a lawsuit with the Municipal Court in Brno, seeking damages of 11.5 million crowns. The project was not realized. The Brno-střed city hall is not yet aware of the lawsuit, reported today's Brno supplement of Mladá fronta Dnes.

"Right now, we are just discussing the exemption from court fees. We are suing the city for damages, for the money actually spent," stated company owner Michal Wiedermann.

The company wants to waive the approximately half-million crown court fee because the planned construction of the multipurpose building in the area is, in their view, in the public interest. Only then will the court deal with the substance of the lawsuit.

A year ago, the Brno-střed district terminated the lease contract with the company; Wiedermann wanted to sue the city for 100 million crowns. The newspaper reported that councilor Svatopluk Bartík (Žít Brno) announced that the company has not fulfilled its threats. The Brno-střed city hall is unaware of the lawsuit. "As of today, no suit has been filed with our office or the magistrate," said Bartík. According to Zuzana Taušová from the magistrate's press department, however, it is not unusual for the court to require a response from the defendant with a significant time lag after the lawsuit has been filed.

Bartík is convinced that the developer will lose the dispute. "If we - purely hypothetically - had to pay him even a single crown, the damages would of course fall on the person who caused it. That is, on the definitively convicted former mayor Dagmar Hrubá from ODS," he stated for the newspaper.

Hrubá signed contracts with Wilson Property in 2006 for the construction of the multipurpose building at náměstí Míru. It concerned a former military object that the city received free of charge from the state. The only condition was that it would not be commercially used for a certain period. However, the contracts signed by Hrubá were in contradiction with this provision. Moreover, Hrubá could not sign them due to her position.

The case dragged on in the courts for several years. Two years ago, the Regional Court in Brno sentenced the former mayor for attempting to abuse her power and for violating her duty in managing foreign property. She was sentenced to 18 months with a suspended sentence for two years.

The company rented the land from the Brno-střed district for a symbolic crown per square meter per year. Hrubá defended herself by stating that the company committed to decontaminating the area, which would cost many millions of crowns.