The Catalan High Court (TSJC) has moved ahead of the Procicat civil protection committee and the Catalan government and and has authorized the immediate opening - already effective this Friday - of bars and restaurants until midnight, and with occupancy of 50% of their maximum capacity. Until now, closing time under the Covid regulations was at 11pm and capacity was limited to 30% of the official maximum.
The decision was made by the discord chamber of the administrative disputes section of the court. What does this mean? That when the administrative court met to resolve the matter, with a total of six judges, the vote was a three-all draw. Spanish law provides in such cases for the convening of a so-called discord chamber, a kind of judicial video-referee provided to make a decision when the normal arbiters have been unable to. Under the rules, three extra judges joined the deadlocked disputes chamber to give the court a total of nine judges.
Thanks to this judicial machinery, bars and restaurants will be able to do on Friday night what the Catalan government had already announced they would be able to do as of Monday night: that is, open an extra hour at night, until 12 midnight instead of having to close their rollers at 11pm.
The resolution is thus fully in force on Friday night, 72 hours earlier than planned by the government, which just today announced the opening from Monday of bars and restaurants until midnight. The decision has two dissenting opinions.
The Catalan government already allowed 100% occupancy of terraces, but limited the usage indoors to 30% of the official maximum. The court also asserts that instead of a maximum of four people at a table, the maximum will be six.
The decision was in response to an appeal by the Restaurant Guild, which submitted a whole series of demands which were rejected. However, given this rejection, the court discussed a second option presented in the appeal - interim measures to allow bars and restaurants to keep serving - and their customers to keep consuming - for an extra hour.
What does Article 262 say?
The Catalan High Court had to apply Article 262 of the Judicial Procedure Law and convene the discord chamber. This is to provide it with a way of reaching a decision when there has been no agreement and a resolution is necessary. The article has the following two points that were applied to get to the bottom of the court decision:
1. "When the vote on a verdict or ruling does not result in a majority of votes for any of the decisions on the facts or the law that have to be made, the points on which they have disagreed shall be re-discussed and voted on by the judges".
2. "If no agreement is reached, the discord shall be resolved by holding a new hearing in which the judges who attended the first hearing, plus two more (if the original number of dissenters was an odd number), and three more (in the case that the number of dissenters was an even number)".
As a result of Article 262, Catalans will have the option of a total of three hours more of eating and drinking out this weekend.