Having recently lost the Manoel Theatre, where traditionally it has been staging its Christmas panto-mime, last week MADC (its real name is Masks Amateur Dramatic Club) won a 16-year battle to keep using its clubrooms in St Venera, formerly the old NAAFI warehouse complex.

The Court of Appeal turned down an appeal by Francis Busuttil & Sons Ltd against a Civil Court sentence handed down in February 2006.

There were two sets of contracts in respect of the building. Originally, it belonged to the Cathedral Chapter and in 1990 the land was leased for 150 years to F Busuttil & Sons but MADC, through a private agreement signed in 1957, had the use of the warehouse. F. Busuttil & Sons wanted MADC out of the property and in 1992 instituted legal proceedings with this aim.

One side issue in the case was in relation to some unusual goings-on within the church. MADC presented two letters from Mgr Joseph Minuti, secretary of the cathedral chapter’s council of administration, one written in 1988 warning MADC that the lease was running out and the other written in January 1989, telling MADC to deal with the archdiocese’s lawyer, while making it clear that MADC would not be turned out of the clubhouse.

MADC kept sending its cheques to the Curia but the Curia refused to cash them and the cheques were deposited at Court.

According to the testimony of Mgr Carmelo Zammit, however, Mgr Minuti was never authorised to intervene since, in 1983, the Archbishop of Malta had assumed the administration of all church property.

In its long and elaborate judgement, the Civil Court found that the lease was “just” and that, being pre-1995, it had to be judged by the laws of the land.

In its judgement, the Appeals Court, presided over by Chief Justice Vincent de Gaetano, found that the original lease between MADC and Emanuel Azzopardi was not, strictly speaking, a lease, as Mr Azzopardi was a tenant and the real landlord was the Govern-ment of Malta. But since this point had not been raised by F. Busuttil & Sons, the Appeals Court had to discuss only the points raised by the appellant.

Nor did the Appeals Court find any trace of collusion between Mr Azzopardi and MADC, as claimed by F. Busuttil & Sons.