Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Unlawful conduct of the institutions - Milk producers deprived of reference quantities under the additional milk levy system after suspending their deliveries under the non-marketing premium system - Need to establish an intention to resume milk production upon expiry of their non-marketing undertaking - Provisional reference quantity obtained at a later date - No effect

(EC Treaty, Art. 215, second para. (now Art. 288, second para., EC); Council Regulations Nos 1078/77 and 857/84)

Summary

$$Community liability for damage caused to certain milk producers as a result of the application of Regulation No 857/84 fixing, under the additional milk levy system, the reference quantity for each producer on the basis of the production delivered during a reference year is subject to the condition that those producers clearly manifested their intention to resume milk production upon expiry of their non-marketing undertaking given under Regulation No 1078/77. In order for the illegality which led the Court of Justice to declare the regulations giving rise to the situation of those producers invalid to entitle those producers to damages, the producers must have been prevented from resuming milk production. That means that the producers whose undertakings expired before the entry into force of Regulation No 857/84 resumed production or at least took steps to do so, such as making investments or repairs, or maintaining the equipment necessary for such production.

From that point of view, the fact that a producer was refused a quota because, when he applied for it, he did not fulfil the conditions laid down in the Community legislation designed to cure the invalidity of Regulation No 857/84, does not exclude his having, upon expiry of his undertaking, a legitimate expectation in the possibility of resuming milk production and therefore his being entitled to compensation. On the other hand, it may also be the case that producers did not intend to resume milk production upon expiry of their undertaking and were allocated a reference quantity some years later, in so far as they fulfilled the conditions then required. Consequently, the fact that a producer obtained a provisional reference quantity at a later date does not in itself prove that upon expiry of his non-marketing undertaking he had the intention to resume milk production.

( see paras 45, 51-52 )