On 15 March 2007, Harju County Court passed a ruling, satisfying the action filed by AS Kalev against the Rae Municipality water undertaking. In December 2005, AS Kalev filed a statement of claim against the Rae Municipality water undertaking AS Elveso arguing that the water undertaking charged unreasonably high waste water disposal fees from AS Kalev and threatened, in violation with the law and the contract, to suspend disposal of AS Kalev's waste water. Harju County Court took the position that AS Elveso had no right to suspend disposal of AS Kalev's waste water on a basis not provided by the law or the regulation of the Rae Municipality Council . The court also ruled that AS Kalev had the right to receive the waste water disposal service from AS Elveso on the basis of the price list established by regulation of the Rae Municipality Council. The pollution fee charged by AS Elveso has not been established pursuant to the procedure, and the company had no basis for charging this fee from AS Kalev. The establishment of a fee for waste water disposal is an obligation assigned to the municipal government (rather than an arbitrary decision of AS Elveso). Failure to adhere to the established procedure by the municipal government must not incur any consequences on the consumer. The owner or possessor of a public water supply and sewerage system (in Rae municipality: AS Elveso) must develop the system in the area serviced by the public water supply and sewerage system in a manner which ensures that waste water is conducted from the registered immovables to the public sewerage system. AS Elveso should thus develop its treatment facilities to reach a capacity which would allow to serve also AS Kalev. As Rae Municipality has failed to develop its treatment facilities to the required capacity, AS Kalev was forced to establish its own preliminary treatment facilities in order to avoid further waste water disputes. AS Kalev submitted the corresponding application for design criteria to Rae Municipality Government already in September 2005. The preliminary treatment facilities were completed in 2007. In the course of the court dispute, AS Kalev proposed a compromise to AS Elveso. Among other things, this solution included the establishment of preliminary treatment facilities by the plaintiff. Regardless of the fact that the preliminary treatment facilities would reduce the burden on the Rae Municipality treatment facilities, the defendant did not accept the compromise proposal. The parties have the right to appeal the ruling of the Harju County Court within 30 days after delivery of the ruling to the appellant. Allan Viirma Director of Legal Service 607 7831
City court satisfies action filed by AS Kalev against water undertaking
| Source: Luterma