Court dismisses water case

Court dismisses water case

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court dismissed all charges by the
Jakarta Water Consumers Community (Komparta) against PT Thames
PAM Jaya (TPJ) and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) as the consumer
group failed to comply with required legal procedures in its
class action suit against the firms.

Presiding judge Suripto read out the ruling on Wednesday that
the court found that Komparta lacked legal standing as it only
had powers of attorney from three out of the eight customers who
had complained of the water firms' poor service.

"The authorization stipulated in the letter is also of a
general nature," he said. "It does not define what the letter
would be used for. In this case, it was for a lawsuit against the
defendants."

Suripto said since Komparta was not entitled to represent the
customers, the court had to reject the suit and drop all charges
and demands against the defendants.

Komparta filed the suit last June, after the firms' insisted
on raising water rates despite customer complaints of a lack of
improvement in the service.

Komparta demanded compensation amounting to Rp 990 million
(US$110,000) for material losses and claimed punitive damages of
Rp 1 billion. It also demanded the firms publish a public apology
to customers in several major media.

While the water firms' defense team was satisfied with the
verdict, Komparta lawyer J.J. Armstrong Sembiring was unhappy
with the ruling.

He questioned the verdict since an earlier ruling by the court
had concluded that all legal procedural requirements -- including
the letter of authorization -- were fulfilled.

"How can it now become a consideration in the final verdict?"
he said, alleging that the ruling was connected to the
replacement of Judge Andriani Nurdin with Judge Suripto around
three months ago.

Komparta previously won a similar case against the city
administration. The trial was then presided over by Judge
Andriani, in which the court ordered the administration to
postpone the implementation of a water rate hike in 2003.

Komparta will appeal the verdict, and if necessary, file a new
class action suit against the firms.