The appeal filed by Armier Developments Ltd against a court judgement which had ruled that 12 boathouses were deemed to be illegal has been abandoned.
The Armier boathouse lobby had filed an appeal back in 2013, following a court ruling that declared the construction of 12 boathouses on public land as illegal.
The Court of Appeal, presided over by Silvio Camilleri, Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri, were told by the lawyer representing those persons who owned the boathouses that they will not be continuing with the appeal.
Mr Justice Anthony Ellul, the judge in the original case, had declared in the original decision that the written communication between government and Armier Developments Ltd (representing the boathouse squatters) was not deemed a binding contract, ordering the 12 owners to be evicted. He had held that they were constructed close to the foreshore on public land, and stressed that the foreshore cannot be privatised. He also said that the transfer of land for caravans can only occur through a lease for a maximum of 10 years.
The case was filed by Armier Developments Ltd and the 12 caravan owners, following an eviction order issued by the Commissioner of Lands. The caravan owners had rested their case on what they refer as the ‘2003 agreement’. Mr Justice Anthony Ellul had noted that the letter issued in April 2003 by the PN government could not be deemed as a binding contract because the parties were conducting negotiations.
Professor Ian Refalo appeared for Armier Developments Limited, while lawyers Nadia Vella, Mireille Sacco and Sarah Grech appeared for the Attorney General’s Office and for the Lands Commission.