Balearic High Court Overturns Sant Josep Seasonal Taxi Licence Awards for 2022 and 2023

November 07, 2026

The High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) has overturned the final allocation of seasonal taxi authorisations in Sant Josep for the 2022 and 2023 seasons after identifying errors in the calculation of applicants' professional seniority.

In a judgment dated 13 October 2026, the court partially upheld an appeal brought by three applicants who had lost positions in the final ranking, ordering Sant Josep Town Council to recalculate seniority and prepare a new classification in accordance with the original competition rules.

The decision reverses an earlier judgment issued in March 2024 by Administrative Court No. 3 in Palma, which had rejected the applicants' claims and considered the municipality's allocation process lawful.

However, the High Court has not directly awarded taxi authorisations to the three appellants. Their chances of obtaining one will depend on the positions they occupy after the corrected ranking has been prepared.

Three applicants challenged the final ranking

The three appellants had initially appeared among the first 150 applicants, giving them a possibility of securing one of the seasonal taxi authorisations.

Their positions changed when the definitive ranking was published. Other applicants moved ahead after certain periods of professional inactivity were counted as valid experience.

The applicants challenged the way the municipality had calculated professional seniority, arguing that the criteria established in the competition rules had not been applied correctly.

The TSJIB examined the individual circumstances of several applicants and identified an error that affected the calculation of one candidate's experience as a salaried taxi driver.

Period of self-employment should have interrupted seniority

One of the central issues concerned an applicant who had voluntarily left his employment as a salaried taxi driver to operate a seasonal taxi authorisation as a self-employed driver.

According to the court's findings, the applicant worked exclusively in this capacity between May and October 2017.

The competition rules established that voluntarily abandoning salaried employment for more than six consecutive months interrupted the accumulation of seniority in that professional category.

The court therefore concluded that this period should not have been counted as continuous experience as a salaried taxi driver.

By including the period in the calculation, the municipality had incorrectly assessed the applicant's seniority and consequently affected the final ranking.

The judgment requires the Council to correct this calculation when preparing the new classification.

Court rejects other challenges to the seniority calculations

Although the TSJIB identified an error, it did not accept all the objections raised by the three applicants.

The court considered that periods of involuntary unemployment could legitimately be included in the calculation of professional seniority under the competition rules.

It also accepted certain short periods of agricultural employment, provided they remained within the limits established by the conditions of the selection process.

Consequently, the ruling does not invalidate every seniority calculation made during the allocation procedure. The municipality must correct the specific errors identified by the court and apply the established criteria consistently.

Municipality also made an error in documentation deadlines

The judgment identifies a further irregularity in the administrative procedure.

Sant Josep Town Council gave applicants five days to correct missing or incomplete documentation, despite the competition rules establishing a period of three days. The municipality also combined this correction process with the subsequent period for submitting objections.

Nevertheless, the court considered that documents submitted within the deadline explicitly communicated by the Council should remain valid.

It argued that applicants should not be penalised for an administrative error made by the municipality itself, referring to the principles of good faith, legitimate expectations, legal certainty and proportionality.

New ranking required, but licences are not automatically awarded

As a result of the judgment, Sant Josep Town Council must recalculate the professional seniority of the applicants and prepare a new definitive ranking for the seasonal taxi authorisations covering 2022 and 2023.

The three appellants have not been directly granted the licences they sought. Their eventual positions will depend on the corrected calculations and the resulting order of applicants.

The court also rejected their request for compensation for alleged damages. It did not establish an automatic right to financial compensation arising from the errors in the allocation procedure.

The municipality must therefore carry out the revised assessment in accordance with the criteria set out in the judgment.

Ruling concerns the 2022 and 2023 allocation process

The judgment relates specifically to the allocation of seasonal taxi authorisations for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

It should be distinguished from Sant Josep's separate 2025–2028 seasonal taxi plan, which was the subject of other legal proceedings. Those proceedings resulted in rulings reported in March and July 2026 that upheld the legality of the later municipal plan.

The latest decision instead requires the municipality to correct the earlier allocation process, ensuring that applicants' professional seniority is calculated according to the conditions established for those particular authorisations.

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