The Appeal Court in Bilbao has upheld last year’s ruling by the Court of First Instance 11 in Bilbao and determined that  mortgage loans granted by Surrenda Link Mortgage (SLM) to invest with Premier Group should be declared null and void.

The appeal ruling confirms that operating without a license is a grave infringement of one mandatory regulatory framework of great importance: the financial services sector. As a result, they order the maximum possible sanction -nullity and voidness- to those illegal activities. For the Appeal Court, acting in this manner

deprived the claimants of any guarantees, which the current legislation envisages to ensure there is complete information with regards to the evolution and situation of the financial entities so that, in this respect, they can limit or prohibit those practices or deals that increase the risk of insolvency or lack of liquidity, and reinforce the resources required to attend to those risks, thus avoiding harm to applicants…Preamble of the Stock Exchange Act of 26/1988).

The Appeal Court goes further than the original ruling and fully corroborates and endorses the allegations of the claimants that the widely publicized Inheritance Tax benefits are false, emphasizing that such conduct is deceitful.

Finally, the higher Court reaffirms the allegation by the claimants that they had no financial experience, a fact not challenged by SLM.

SLM’s choices are to accept the ruling and not interfere in the cancellation of the mortgage loans or explore filing an exceptional appeal with the Supreme Court, a possibility only accepted in very specific cases.

Litigants expressed their satisfaction over the performance of their lawyers Lawbird Legal Services.