Woman claims court marshalls 'cleaned out house'

A woman yesterday claimed that court marshalls empowered to execute a precautionary warrant of seizure for some Lm1,500 had cleaned out a house and taken more than Lm100,000 worth of items including furniture, antiques and jewellery, of which only Lm10,000 were listed by the marshalls.

Moreover, the warrant of seizure was executed at the wrong address because the person sued was her brother who did not live at the same address, Bella Hili claimed.

She filed a judicial protest in the Civil Court against the justice minister, the director general and registrar of the law courts, the attorney general and court marshalls Frans Fenech and Michael Micallef.

The protest, filed by Hili in her personal capacity and as the heir of her late mother Theresa Hili, was also filed against Anthony Meli, Kevin Xuereb Vella, Meli Car Rentals Limited, Dr Reuben Farrugia and Anthony Camilleri.

Hili yesterday claimed that Meli Car Rentals Limited had filed a court case against her brother Paul for Lm1,491.22. In the course of the proceedings before the Small Claims Tribunal, the company had issued a precautionary warrant of seizure against him.

The Magistrates' Court had authorised the company to break into premises at Marina Street, Pietà in order to execute the warrant of seizure.

But Paul Hili did not live on the premises, only she and her mother did.

The company was well aware of this fact, and it used to address invoices to Paul Hili at another residence in Pietà.

Hili said that her home had been broken into on July 16, 2002, while her mother was in an old people's home, and the two court marshalls had exceeded the conditions of the warrant of seizure.

Bella Hili claimed that Fenech and Micallef had taken all that they found on the premises, including all the furniture and jewellery from a safe instead of just seizing items that were worth Lm1,491.22.

Furthermore, Fenech and Micallef had failed to list down all the items seized by them when they executed the warrant.

When the Magistrates' Court had subsequently appointed a court expert to prepare a valuation of the items seized, it resulted that the consignatory, Anthony Meli (who was related to the company's directors) held furniture and other items not listed by the court marshalls.

Bella Hili added that among the items in Anthony Meli's possession was a painting of the school of Mattia Preti, showing St Martin on a white horse, which had disappeared from her home.

The court expert had also valued the listed items lodged with the consignatory, and the listed jewellery seized, at over Lm10,000.

Bella Hili added that the court marshalls had not listed down the gold items and jewellery seized, and it resulted that the listing had been carried out on the day following the seizure in handwriting that was neither Fenech's nor Micallef's.

The jewellery seized was deposited at the Monte di Pietà but when the court expert went to value it, some items were found missing.

Hili claimed that when the breaking into her home and the seizure of the items had taken place, the court marshalls had been accompanied by the consignatory, Anthony Meli, a certain Kevin Xuereb Vella, Reno Meli, who represented the company, and the company's lawyer Dr Reuben Farrugia.

This, claimed Hili, was not allowed at law. The court marshalls were duty-bound to ensure that the items seized corresponded in value to the sum claimed in the warrant of seizure.

Furthermore, they were duty-bound to ensure that all the items seized had been listed.

The Magistrates' Court had ordered the police commissioner to investigate the case, but to date, even though a number of persons had been interrogated (including the court marshalls) the police had not returned any items to her.

Hili added that the items stolen from her home and which were her mother's property were worth over Lm100,000.

Her mother had died and had appointed her as her sole heir.

Hili claimed that the justice minister, the director general and the registrar of the law courts were responsible as they had employed the court marshalls.

She claimed gross negligence in the execution of the warrant and held respondents liable in damages.

Dr Anna Mallia signed the protest.