March 8, 2024

Decree No. 762, Special Law for Municipal Restructuring: Implications in Judicial Processes

DISTRIBUCION GEOGRAFICA

By: Feridee Alabí, Litigation Manager

 

Starting from May 1st, 2024, the territory of El Salvador will be divided into 14 departments, 44 municipalities, and 262 municipal districts.

What will happen to the judicial processes that have been initiated by or against the municipalities that will become districts?

This law came into effect on June 26th, 2023, and from that date onwards, the ongoing judicial processes involving the former municipalities, now districts, whether as plaintiffs, defendants, or third parties, continued to proceed as usual. However, from May 1st of the current year, there will be a procedural succession by operation of law in favor of the integrating municipality into which the municipality involved in the litigation is incorporated as a district. For example: If the district of Antiguo Cuscatlán is the defendant, as of May 1st, due to procedural succession, the defendant will be the municipality of La Libertad Este.

This procedural succession will be carried out in accordance with Article 88 of the Civil and Commercial Procedural Code.

Any judicial or administrative processes initiated from May 1st, 2024, in which a municipality incorporated as a district in a new municipality is involved, will be the responsibility of the latter, which may be sued as the defendant or sue as the plaintiff.

Aspects to consider with the application of this law:

  • The exception of lack of tribunal competence due to territorial jurisdiction cannot be invoked in these processes.
  • The rules of territorial competence contained in the Judicial Organic Law and complementary decrees will remain in force, and the same courts that currently have territorial competence to hear the processes of a particular municipality will continue from May 1st, 2024, to hear litigation of the new municipality to which a district is incorporated.
  • The municipality's and respective municipal district's territorial circumscriptions must be specified in the lawsuit.
  • For the purposes of this law, each municipality and municipal district will retain the current territorial delimitation granted to them by legislative decree.