Santiago Calatrava is no stranger to legal troubles. In 2013, he was sued by Spanish winemaker Domecq Wines for constructing a leaky roof, then failing to repair it; late that year, his native city of Valencia sued him for building it a white elephant of a performing arts center, where Christmas performances had to be cancelled when visitor safety was threatened by tiles that fell from the structure’s facade. And he was fined $4.5 million by a court last year for faulty construction at a conference center in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo.
Yet while they were deeply problematic, none of his previous offenses actually broke Spanish law. Now, Calatrava faces charges in a court case regarding the awarding of construction contracts in Spain, reports Reuters.
Due to appear before the Castellon provincial court on September 2, Calatrava is being tried in the province that paid him $3.6 million in exchange for design documents and architectural models for a convention center that was never started. “A charge to appear before a judge is a step taken before being formally charged with a crime under Spain’s legal system,” explains Reuters. ”The court also wants documents from the authorities detailing how Calatrava was hired without the process being made public, which for contracts over a certain minimum value is also an offense in Spain.” While it would seem that the legal blame here falls on the figures within the Spanish government who engage in opaque construction contract practices — and several senior public officials are also being tried in regard to the contracts, reports Reuters — it remains to be seen what the Spanish court will decide about Calatrava’s involvement in particular. Given his precedents with the country’s legal system, the outcome doesn’t seem to be promising in his favor.
— Anna Kats (@fortunaviriliis)
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
