The Constitutional Court ruled in favour of former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff yesterday and confirmed compensation of Lm360,000 for the expropriation of his land in Delimara.
The court ordered that the amount of Lm212,950, that Mr Mintoff had already been paid, be deducted from the compensation.
The compensation was awarded as a result of Mr Mintoff and his wife (who has since died) filing an application in court against the Prime Minister, as the representative of the Government of Malta, the Environ-ment Minister and the Enemalta chairman, claiming that the building of the power station so close to his house breached his fundamental human rights.
In April 1995, the constitutional court had ruled in favour of Mr Mintoff and all that remained to be decided was the amount of compensation he was to be given. The court had ruled that the rights of Mr Mintoff and his wife had been violated, in that they were not allowed to enjoy their possession, in this case, their home known as L-Gharix, in Delimara.
In August 2004 the first court awarded the Mintoffs Lm360,000 by way of compensation.
Both the Mintoffs and the government appealed against this decision. The Mintoffs claimed that they should have been awarded more compensation and that the first court should have ordered the government to provide them with an alternative residence.
The government and Enemalta claimed the first court should have ordered the government to expropriate the Mintoffs’ property and pay compensation in terms of the law governing expropriation. They also claimed the compensation was excessive.
The Constitutional Court, composed of Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti ruled yesterday that the issue of the appeals was whether the first court had awarded the Mintoffs a correct remedy for the violation of their human rights.
The court said that the value of the property was the principal criterion for establishing compensation in cases of expropriation. In this case, the court was dealing with a dwelling house that had become uninhabitable, so the person who used to reside in this house was, as a minimum, entitled to the value of the property.
The Constitutional Court also commented on the fact that the Mintoffs had caused a delay in the court case as a result of filing numerous written submissions and inundating the first court and the Constitutional Court with documents.
The Constitutional Court varied the judgment appealed from and ordered each party to pay its own costs of the litigation.
The court also confirmed the compensation award of the first court, but ruled that the sum of Lm212,950 already paid to the Mintoffs was to be deducted from the Lm360,000 compensation award.