“It’s a good decision. A very satisfactory first step ”, rejoices Me Guillaume Delarue, lawyer of the sports association, Le Blanc-Mesnil Sport Judo (BMSJ), after having been informed of the judgment of the administrative court opposing him to the commune of Blanc-Mesnil.
The BMSJ’s advice rightly suspects that the city of Blanc-Mesnil will not remain on this legal setback. In fact, the former mayor Thierry Meignen (Libres!), Leader of the municipal majority, already announces the line of conduct of the municipality: “The liars deceived the judges of the TA, they will have much more of difficulties in appeal ”, he blurted out, refusing any further comment. More precisely, it is before the Court of Cassation that the two parties should meet.
The judo club had seized the court of Montreuil, in summary in mid-October. He criticized the municipality for having drastically reduced its time slots “since it loses about more than seven hours compared to the 2020-2021 sports season, going from 3 pm to 8:10 am. In 2019-2020, she benefited from 34:30 “, according to the court report.
The plaintiffs argued that the mayor’s decision “significantly threatened the continuation of his activity as well as his survival, by preventing him from being able to offer courses to all of its members”, while at the same time, “the number of ‘Membership has continued to increase, with 110 licensees and currently 170 members, the number of licensees not yet being stabilized ”.
The court questions the legal merits of municipal decisions
To justify the reduction of the time slots, the municipality objected in particular that “the premises made available to the club are perfectly suited to the practice of judo and allow it to carry out its activities in satisfactory conditions”.
There was an urgency to rule, according to the magistrates, who demanded that a “suspension of an administrative act be pronounced, when the execution of this act seriously enough and immediately infringes a public interest”.
According to the administrative court, “it does not emerge from the documents in the file and from the debates [que] the reasons put forward by the municipality of Blanc-Mesnil are such as to justify the measures to severely restrict the time slots for the use of sports equipment allocated to the applicant association, in particular when the evolution of the number of its members is on the rise and that the practical necessities invoked by the municipality (…) are not sufficiently established. “
The administrative jurisdiction goes further and calls into question the legal merits of municipal decisions, speaking of “a serious doubt on the legality of the contested decisions”.
At the beginning of April, before the municipal council, Thierry Meignen placed the matter on the political ground: “Is Le Blanc-Mesnil Sport Judo still a sports club or has it become a political association?” “
“There was a use of the mayor’s powers for political purposes and to oust the association”, denounces today Me Delarue, the club’s lawyer.
In addition to the suspension of municipal decisions, the administrative court ordered the city of Blanc-Mesnil to pay 1,500 euros for the costs incurred by the association.
