On the basis of the aforesaid, I will examine the company's requirements for payment of damages compensation.
The damages claimed by the company in light of the municipality's conduct
- The company supported its evidence with the opinion of CPA Sitton, which supports all the damages caused to it. Accordingly, it petitioned for remedies that include: (a) interest and linkage payments for a period of 7 years in which its funds were held by the municipality, in the amount of approximately ILS 2.37 million; (b) compensation for interest payments due to repeated extensions of the loan from Benny and Zvika Ltd. in the amount of ILS 1.5 million; (c) expenses incurred by the plaintiffs in promoting the project, which amount to approximately ILS 1.6 million; (d) Payment of initiation fees in the amount of ILS 4 million, which the Company undertook to pay Lochter; (e) Compensation for the loss of business opportunities for the Company, such as KBI Holdings Ltd. in the amount of ILS 25 million, and other expenses of managing the proceeding, which it set at ILS 565,000.
As stated, and despite the scope of the alleged damage, the company placed its claim at the sum of ILS 10 million, of which it received a refund of approximately ILS 5 million already in the early stages of the proceeding. Therefore, the remaining damage framework is within the limits of ILS 5 million, in accordance with the rate of the fee paid by the company.
- On the other hand, the Municipality rejected the company's demands for damages and argued that at most the company was entitled to the refund of the monies it paid, in accordance with the provisions of the agreement, i.e., together with linkage differences only from the date of payment until the date on which the agreement was canceled, as was actually done.
The following is a breakdown of the company's requirements:
Reimbursement of usage fees
- With regard to the demand for payment of linkage differences , there is no dispute that according to the provisions of the agreement, if the conditions suspending the existence of the agreement are not met, the company will be entitled to a refund of the funds it paid together with linkage differences.
There is no dispute that it was only on April 3,2023 (about seven years after the payment was made and about two years after it was required to return the funds) and after the filing of the claim in the present proceeding, in July 2022, that the Municipality returned to the Company the sum of ILS 5,075,635 for the usage fees it had paid, including the addition of linkage differences to the Consumer Price Index from the date of payment until February 18,2021 (the date on which the Ministry of the Interior's response was received, which signed this transaction). and not until the date of restitution, which was more than two years later - on April 4,2023.