Two brothers have been awarded over €18,000 in damages after a restoration project for a Għargħur quarry, intended to become a vineyard for major wineries, was left in a decade-long administrative limbo by the Ministry for Resources.

On Thursday, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the state must compensate brothers Victor and Joseph Bonavia for a project that was left in an administrative "limbo" for a decade.

The court found that the brothers were trapped in a "Kafkaesque limbo" while government entities and planning authorities blamed each other for missing permits.

The saga began on April 5, 2002, when the Bonavia brothers entered into a contract with the then-Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure. 

Under the agreement, the ministry was to fill the brothers' Għargħur quarry with construction waste and cover it with a metre of topsoil within a two-year period. 

The goal was to transform the site into agricultural land for a vineyard, with the brothers already in discussions to supply grapes to the Marsovin and Delicata wineries.

However, works ground to a halt just a month after the contract was signed. Authorities realised that necessary development permits from the Planning Authority (then MEPA) and environmental licenses were missing. 

Despite the two-year contractual deadline, the permits were not issued until late 2011 and early 2012, and the project was only completed in April 2012; ten years after it was supposed to begin.

Frustrated by the stagnation, the brothers filed a lawsuit in June 2010, accusing the ministry of gross negligence. The ministry argued that the two-year clock for completion should only have started ticking after the permits were granted.

The court rejected this argument. 

It ruled that the ministry could not benefit from a delay it had caused through its own lack of communication and failure to provide the Planning Authority with requested information. 

The judgment noted that the ministry and its delegates were responsible for 31 months of total inaction during the application process, leaving the brothers in an administrative trap. 

The court concluded that the permits should have reasonably been obtained by the end of 2005, meaning the ministry was officially in breach of contract as of January 1, 2008.

While the brothers won the case, they appealed the 2024 decision, arguing that the €18,772 award was "partly" given the potential long-term profits of a vineyard. 

Valuations for the profit diverged heavily. An expert for the brothers estimated a 17-year profit of €207,363, while a consultant for the ministry argued the project was so costly it would have resulted in a €342,550 loss.

The court-appointed expert, Claudette Gambin, found a middle ground, estimating costs at €99,085 and profits at €133,565.

The Court of Appeal stood by the court-appointed expert's calculations, limiting the damages to the specific period of the delay between 2008 and 2012.

The court also dismissed a claim by Victor Bonavia, who argued he was forced to delay his retirement from the Police Corps because the vineyard project failed to materialise. 

The judges ruled that continuing to work and receiving a salary rather than a pension did not constitute a financial loss.

They dismissed both the brothers' appeal for more compensation and the ministry's cross-appeal, confirming the €18,772 award plus legal interest.