LIMITATION PERIOD OF CERTAIN LEGAL COOPERATIVE ACTIONS AND REIMBURSEMENT TO THE SOCIETY BECAUSE OF ECONOMIC LOSSES (COMMENT TO THE JUDGMENT OF THE PROVINCIAL COURT OF JAEN 621/2017 FROM 31 st OCTOBER)

Abstract

This comment aims to analyse the judgment of the Provincial Court of Jaen from 31st October 2017, in which the members of an agricultural cooperative are imposed the obligation of addressing the cooperative losses that have their origin in the overvaluation of the oil produced by them. The appellants plead that the applicable limitation period is that from the Civil Code and not the one from the Commerce Code. With this argument as a base, the complex debate about the
mercantile character of the cooperative societies and the valuation criterion of the associate’s contributions are studied.

Moreover, it is necessary to point out the fact that the first degree agricultural cooperatives are normally integrated in second degree structures, in charge of commercialising the products from the members after a transformation process. Thus, the cooperative San Juan Bautista, which is the appellee in the judgment, is integrated in Fedeoliva, which puts the products in the market.