Four members of the Sociedad Beneifica La Esperanza took it to court, but it backfired.

The Sociedad Beneifica La Esperanza was founded in April 1900 following a large donation of mountain land by Don Juan Caballero Fernández and su esposa Doña María Molina Pérez under the concept of helping the people of Dúrcal.

The sociedad was originally formed with 15 original members and the land was used, especially in times of hardship in Dúrcal for growing potatoes, wheat, aromatic shrubs, grazing livestock and hunting.

The elderly folk in Dúrcal remember that when April came, many went up to El Monte and worked the land until October or November when the snows came.

Over the years the Sociedad Benéfica La Esperanza has had its ups and downs and even at moments tottered on disappearing but it has survived.

However, it appears that several members have come to think that the land that they are allowed to use is theirs to do with what they please, attempting to convert it into private property.

Consequently, they took S.B. La Esperanza to court, but the judge presiding over the case in Granada decided in favour of S.B. La Esperanza, considering it proven it is the rightful owner of these disputed areas of land and that the four individuals only have right to the cultivated land as members (socios). Furthermore, the buildings on them also belong to S.B. La Esperanza and that the claimants only enjoy usufruct over them.

The parcelas or plots of land in question consists of 13.5 obradas (an obrada is approximately 4,000 sq/m so around 54,000 sq/m in total) comprising olives and almond trees and four cortijos and an open water deposit.

The four members had demanded the building be entered onto the land registry as theirs and the land on which they sat as independent from S.B. La esperanza, which was rejected by the judge. The court also found that all the buildings constructed on the land used “administrative subterfuge”

(News/Noticias: Durcal, Valle de Lecrin, Granada, Andalucia)