An appeal filed after several million dollars of damages are awarded to the Ljubljana Archdiocese

The experts’ opinion is at the heart of the appeal

: “Based on the fact that we have no higher court precedents regarding the appropriateness of expert’s opinions in cases of forest management, we feel that an appeal makes sense,” the Farmland and Forest Fund has written. Foto: BoBo

The Farmland and Forest Fund has appealed a court decision which awarded 17.4 million euros worth of damages to the Ljubljana Archdiocese because of a delay in the return of the Mozirje forests, as well as a part of the Pokljuka forests, in the denationalization process.

The agency filed the appeal because it has doubts about the experts’ opinion drafted during the case and accepted by the court.

In its initial ruling, the court awarded 11.2 million euros in damages to the Archdiocese in 2015, but a higher court annulled the ruling in 2016 and ordered a retrial.

In the retrial, the court awarded an additional 6.2 million euros to the Archdiocese. If the ruling goes into effect, the Farmland and Forest Fund would have to pay 17.4 million euros in damages to the Archdiocese, as well as 11 million euros in interest and 422,000 euros in legal fees. Because the fund has already paid 9.2 million euros of the accepted damages, it would need to pay slightly more than 20 million euros to the Archdiocese. However, the ruling will not yet go into effect because of the appeal.