City court satisfies action filed by AS Kalev against water

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
