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Ruling: Last week we saw that the direct obligation of arnona during the times in question is def’s.
Regarding payment of late penalties, pl was indeed negligent in not paying the bills, and this directly caused the penalties. Even though the principle financial obligation was def’s, responsibility to arrange the payments was pl’s during period B. If there was possible strategic value in delaying payment, pl should have consulted with def. Therefore, pl will pay these penalty payments for period B. Regarding period C-D, pl should have been out of the picture, once their contract was over. Def did not prove that pl asked them not to take over the arnona account, and there was no reason for them to imagine that pl was paying these bills. Therefore, def should have paid themselves and since they did not, the penalty payments are theirs. Since the obligation is def’s, it is not considered as if def is paying pl ribbit.
The penalty payments should be divided according to the time of each obligation. The benefit of the reduction is according to the size of each part of the obligation, except for the final unexplained reduction of 60,000 shekels which should be split evenly by the sides.
The agreement between def and pl and between the lawyer was that they should pay according to the amount of reduction. Therefore, according to the amounts of reduction from which each side benefitted, so too should the lawyer’s fee be levied.

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