The Bar Association of Barcelona held a roundtable session on Monday, 16 April 2012, to address the problems associated with preferred shares from a legal point of view. One of the speakers who took part in the session was Carlos de Miranda Vázquez, a professor in the UIC Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences.
The
session “The Problems of Preferred Shares” was moderated by
Jesús María
Sánchez García, a member of the Committee on
Standards. Also participating were José Manuel Regadera Sáenz, a judge in
Section 19 of Barcelona Provincial Court; Ingrid Sumarroca Hurtado,
a lawyer; Ignasi Fernández de Senespleda,
a lawyer in the legal advice department at Catalunya Caixa savings bank; and
Carlos de Miranda Vázquez,
a professor of Procedural Law at the UIC and a member of the Institute of
Forensic Evidence and Probative Law at the ESADE Faculty of Law (Universitat Ramon Llull).
Judge Regadera Sáenz stated
that six
rulings on
preferred shares had been passed in the last eight months.
Of these, half were in favour of the banks and the other half in favour of the
holders. For this reason, the judge said, “The evidence stage in these types of
trials is crucial, since they deal with indirect evidence, which means that
evaluating the case is not easy”.
Meanwhile,
Professor de
Miranda made some recommendations on the evidence stage in lawsuits
involving preferred shares. In his analysis, he suggested that the holder’s investor
profile may not be suitable for investments of this type and therefore proposed
alternative evidence, such as judicial examination of the holder,
cross-examining bank witnesses and producing a report on the preferred shares contract.
