Münster.
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s reclaim of emergency corona aid paid out in 2020 is illegal. That was decided by the OVG Münster on Friday.
In the dispute over the recovery of emergency Corona aid, the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Administrative Court overturned incorrect decisions on Friday. The Higher Administrative Court thus agreed with the view of the administrative courts from the previous instance. However, according to the court’s instructions, the state can reassess the final decisions and thus reclaim overpaid amounts. The court did not allow an appeal. Complaints can be lodged with the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.
The plaintiffs, including a tax consultant, the owner of a beauty salon and the operator of a fast-food restaurant, received 9,000 euros in emergency aid as self-employed or entrepreneurs in the spring. Federal and state aid programs were intended to prevent the economy from collapsing during the first lockdown.
OVG: Wording errors happened under time pressure
After three months, the state sent final decisions and demanded around 7000 euros back. According to the OVG, wording errors had occurred due to the time pressure, which had led to understandable false expectations on the part of the recipients. It was unclear whether the help was intended to replace lost sales, payment problems or maintenance.
The funds from state and federal programs based on EU law were intended exclusively to alleviate financial emergencies caused by the pandemic. This was intended to bridge liquidity bottlenecks in particular, the court said in the justification.
Oral hearing lasted seven hours
However, the country had requested information that in the end were unsuitable for determining the correct funding amount. “The extent to which funding was actually used during the approval period as part of the earmarking of the funding could not be stated there,” says the reasoning for the judgment.
“If something is formulated in a misleading way, it is at the expense of the state,” said the presiding judge, Wolf Sarnighausen. In the oral hearing, which lasted more than seven hours, he criticized both the country and the expectations of some applicants. Although the country had problems with the wording, it should have been clear to everyone that too much money had to be repaid.
He admitted to the country that the mistakes were made under great time pressure, “in the interest of quick help”. The country had made contradictory statements. For example, the information in the application did not match the ministry’s information pages, at least for a short time.
The plaintiff repeatedly pointed out the loss of sales
During the hearing, one of the plaintiffs repeatedly referred to the loss of sales during the pandemic. But according to the court, there is no indications in the procedure that the aid should compensate for this. It is solely about alleviating the financial hardship of a company or the self-employed in connection with the corona pandemic.
Around 2,500 lawsuits had been filed at the seven administrative courts in the country. The path now shown by the OVG is necessary, said the presiding judge, because the state was unable to work with the decisions of the administrative courts. (dpa)
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