A lawsuit against the management of Llanera – one of the first big Spanish developers to go bankrupt – has been dismissed by a court in Valencia on the grounds that the economic crisis is to blame for Llanera’s collapse.

According to Cuatrecasas, the solicitors representing Llanera’s management, the court has dismissed the case on the grounds that the company’s bankruptcy was “exclusively due to the financial crisis” and cannot be attributed to malfeasance on the part of the management.

The case was brought against Fernando Gallego and the rest Llanera’s board of directors in 2007 by Multiservicios Arco Mediterráneo, S.L., one of the company’s creditors.

In a taste of things to come for the Spanish property sector, Llanera went bankrupt in October 2007, with debts of 750 million Euros, more than 100 million of them owed to Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank that has now also collapsed.

Llanera focused heavily on selling holiday home developments in Murcia and the Costa Blanca to British buyers. In December 2005 Llanera struck a four-year, £6.6m sponsorship deal with the football club Charlton Athletic

Its flagship project was Nature Caravaca de la Cruz, a golf development near the inland town of Caravaca de la Cruz, in Murcia, where it planned to build 3,000 homes in a joint venture with other investors.