The Bottom Line
- Businesses can recover legal costs when suing Dutch administrative bodies for failing to meet statutory decision deadlines.
- This principle holds even if the lawsuit is withdrawn because the agency rushes to issue the decision after being sued.
- This provides a powerful, low-financial-risk tool for companies to compel timely action from government agencies on critical commercial matters.
The Details
The case involved a company waiting for a decision from the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) regarding the reassessment of a former employee’s disability benefits. When the legal deadline for the UWV to decide had passed, the company took the matter to court, suing the agency for its failure to act in a timely manner. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the UWV issued its decision. Having achieved its goal, the company withdrew its legal action but requested that the court order the UWV to cover its legal expenses.
The court sided entirely with the company. The ruling hinges on a key principle in Dutch administrative law: if a lawsuit is withdrawn because the government body has met the plaintiff’s demands, that body can be ordered to pay the associated legal costs. The court reasoned that by finally issuing the overdue decision, the UWV had “accommodated” the company. The lawsuit was the necessary catalyst to force the agency to act, and therefore the costs incurred in filing it were a direct result of the UWV’s initial delay.
As a result, the court ordered the UWV to pay the company’s process costs of €453.50. Furthermore, the ruling confirmed that the UWV is also obligated to refund the company’s court filing fee of €385. This outcome sends a clear message to business leaders and their legal counsel: you do not have to bear the financial burden of holding administrative bodies accountable. If an agency’s delay forces you to take legal action, the costs of doing so can, and should, be recovered.
Source
Source: Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant
