19 Political Constitution of 2008, Art. 323: With the purpose of executing plans of social development, sustainable environmental management, and of collective wellbeing, the State’s institutions, for reasons of public interest or social and national interest, may declare the expropriation of properties, prior fair assessment, compensation, and payment pursuant with the law. All forms of confiscation are forbidden. 55. Pursuant with the applicable legislation in the judgment of the Ninth Civil Judge in expropriation trial No. 1996-1300, the Tribunal points out that the expropriation proceedings in the case to set the just price is governed by the following relevant stipulations, inter alia, Articles 32161 and 323 of the Political Constitution, approved on July 19, 2008; Articles 786,62 788,63 790,64 791,65 792,66 and 79767 of the Code of Civil Procedures, approved on July 12, 2005, and Articles 242,68 243,69 and 24470 of the Organic Law of the Municipal Regimen, approved on December 5, 2005. 61 Art. 321 (Political Constitution of 2008): The State recognizes and guarantees the right to property in public, private, communitarian, state, associative, cooperative, and joint manners, and that it must comply with its social and environmental roles. 62 Art. 786 (Code of Civil Procedure of 2005): With the petition for expropriation, the following shall accompany it: [...] 3. The value of the estate to which it relates, in whole or in part, the petition for expropriation, which is fixed according to the value of assets or rights which have been expropriated at the time of commencement of the brief of occupation, regardless of goodwill incurred as a direct result of the project that encourages the expropriation and its future expansion. If the estate does not appear or in the cadastre, the Attorney General or the ombudsmen of public sector institutions, will ask the appropriate office to carry out the appraisal to accompany the petition [...]. In this regard, the Court observes that this provision is reproduced in Art. 242 of the Organic Law of the Municipal Regime of 2005 (infra note 68). 63 Art. 788 (Code of Civil Procedure of 2005): Once the petition is presented and once the requisites in the prior Articles are complied with, the judge shall name an expert, pursuant to that established in this Code, for the appraisal of the land. At the same time, the judge shall order all persons cited in the prior Article be summoned, [(art. 787: “the owners of the property and those persons that, according the registrars certification of the property, had real rights or tenant rights on the land”)], so they can make use of their rights within fifteen days, which will run simultaneously for all. In the same order, the period will be fixed for the expert or experts to present their report, a period which shall not exceed fifteen days, counted as of the end of the prior. 64 Art. 790 (Code of Civil Procedure of 2005): To fix the price set for compensation, the documents will be taken into account that accompany the petition. If it entails the expropriation of a portion of the appraised property, the price shall be fixed by setting the corresponding proportional relationship. However, when what is desired to be expropriated consists of a main part of the land, of the highest value in relation to the rest; when it involves the highest quality, with respect to the rest, or in similar cases; a fair price may be established pursuant to the opinion of the expert or experts. 65 Art. 791 (Code of Civil Procedure of 2005): The judge will issue a judgment within eight days of the presentation of the expert report, and in it, there shall be resolution only regarding the price that should be paid and the claims of the interested parties. In order to fix the price, the judge is not obligated to carry out the valuation established by the National Valuation and Cadastres Office, nor by the municipalities. 66 Art. 792 (Code of Civil Procedure of 2005): With the Judgment ordered, there will be means to appeal regarding devolution effects. The orders are heightened, it will fail on the merit of the process and without other processing. 67 Art. 797 (Code of Civil Procedure of 2005): When dealing with urgent expropriation, considered as such by the entity demanding it, the property will be immediately occupied. This occupation will be ordered by a judge in the in the first ruling of the trial, so long as, the petition comes with a price that, in the opinion of the petitioner, should be paid for the expropriation. The trial will continue for the procedures outlined in previous articles, in order to fix the price. The urgent occupation order is final and shall be without delay. 68 Art. 242 (Organic Law of the Municipal Regimen of 2005): The appraisals are carried out according to the value of assets or rights which have been expropriated at the time of commencement of the brief of occupation, regardless of goodwill arising as a direct result of the project to encourage the expropriation and its future expansion. Improvements made after the commencement of the case file of expropriation, shall not be compensated. 69 Art. 243 (Organic Law of the Municipal Regimen of 2005): To determine the prices that corresponds to the assets that will be expropriated, the following will be used: aside from that established in the Code of civil procedure, the law of public contracts and other laws.