Marbella man cleared by court of paying back 137,000-euro debt

A Marbella man who started a business that ended up ruining him financially has been exonerated from paying his debts by a court in the town. The 50-year-old man not only had to close down the business, but accumulated debts of around 137,000 euros.

According to the court order, which SUR has had access to, the former businessman had a part-time job delivering bread, for which he was earning less than 400 euros a month. Using this money, together with a widow's pension of 520 euros, the father-of-two was trying to pay off the debt.

According to the court documents, the man, who was represented by the law firm Ley 57, proved that he was in a situation of financial insolvency. Apparently, despite his attempts, he was unable to reach an out-of-court payment agreement to pay the significant amount of money he owed.

The judge also considered including a debt he had with Malaga city hall and the tax authorities. While the former exceeded 1,000 euros, the latter amounted to 5,000 euros.

As the public debt was less than 10,000 euros, the court decided to include it within the exonerated liabilities, as the man had started the proceedings before a reform of the Insolvency Law Consolidated Text, which happened in September 2022. This meant that all the proceedings had followed the legal channels in accordance with the previous law.