Five magistrates unanimously resolve that the Civil Guard colonel knew the reasons for his dismissal as head of the UCO and that there was no retaliation from the Interior
“The cessation had a clear, sufficient and understandable motivation.” The five magistrates of the Supreme Court who have seen the appeal of the Civil Guard Colonel Manuel Ángel Sánchez Corbí against his dismissal in August 2018 have had no doubts about the decision of the Ministry of the Interior, which alleged a loss of confidence as it was a position freely designated.
The Contentious-Administrative Chamber has released this Monday the content of the 20-page ruling, whose ruling was advanced on September 20, in which the claim of the head of the Central Operating Unit (UCO) of rehabilitate him in his functions, receive the economic and career supplements inherent to the position and give the maximum public dissemination to the sentence in defense of his reputation.
None of these requests will be possible anymore and Sánchez Corbí, a 59-year-old from Valladolid, will also remain -at least with this Government- without the possibility of being promoted to General of the Benemérita. The colonel decided to take his dispute against the Interior, and therefore with Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to court and up to three instances with the Supreme Court have not agreed with him.
The judgment establishes that the termination agreements in positions that were accessed through the free appointment system have a motivation requirement also in the field of the Civil Guard, where there is no exemption or dispensation from that general rule.
However, in application of this doctrine to the specific case, the Chamber understands that in the dismissal of Sánchez Corbí this motivation did exist, which was justified “due to loss of confidence (…) by having sent an email on July 25, 2018 e-mail to the Judicial Police Headquarters and to all the Departments of the Central Operational Unit ordering that any investigative activity and its subordinate units that compulsorily require expenditures from the Reserved Expense Funds item be temporarily suspended, without having received any type of instruction of its organic commands or of the Judicial Authority or Public Prosecutor, putting at risk the success of police and judicial operations.
For the Supreme Court, the administrative act thus appears “sufficiently motivated, since the reasons for this loss of confidence, essential in the performance of this type of position, and that is legally and expressly concerned by its mention in article 77.2 of Law 29/2014 (of the Civil Guard Personnel Regime)».
I knew the reasons
It adds that the agreement of the Secretary of State for Security “provides a clear, sufficient, understandable and specific reason for the case, in relation to the reasons for his dismissal. Without, ultimately, we can brand these explanations as generic or standardized, since they provide a specific and detailed explanation of the circumstances and the reasons why the loss of confidence that determines the cessation challenged in the instance has occurred.
«The appellant, therefore, was aware of the reasons that led to his dismissal and acted accordingly, as evidenced by the allegation put forward in his defense in the successive challenges made, both administratively (appeal for appeal), and in court. (contentious-administrative appeal and appeal appeal). Without noticing in the appeal resolution any substantial or relevant change or alteration, in relation to the reasons on which the cessation of the position covered by the free appointment system, as Head of the Central Operational Unit, is based” , indicates the sentence of which the magistrate Pilar Teso has been rapporteur.
On the other hand, the resolution rules out that the contested dismissal was a disciplinary sanction, neither overt nor covert, so it did not require the substantiation of a sanctioning procedure. «We find ourselves, on the contrary, before the termination of the performance of a position that was accessed through the free appointment system, due to the concurrence of the supervening circumstances, indicated above, which determined the loss of confidence in the person who had been appointed» , Add.
That the court has gone into the merits of the reasons for the dismissal of the freely appointed positions in the Civil Guard could also affect the appeal filed by another colonel of the body, Diego Pérez de los Cobos, who was dismissed in May 2020 as head of the Madrid Command for his action in the investigation of the cause -already archived- of the 8-M feminist march at the beginning of the pandemic.
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