The Constitutional Court yesterday more than trebled the compensation due to a woman whose land had been expropriated by the government in 1969 and who had, to date, not received any payment for the expropriation.

The judgment was delivered by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti in a constitutional application filed by Maria Farrugia against the Commissioner of Lands.

Ms Farrugia told the court that she owned land that had been expropriated in 1969 when a declaration was issued by the then Governor General, Sir Maurice Dorman, that the land was required for a public purpose. According to Ms Farrugia, she had not received any further communication from the government since that date and the land had not even been formally expropriated by public deed.

Ms Farrugia complained that she had suffered as a result of being in a state of bureaucratic limbo because she could not sell the land on the open market and, at the same time, she had not received any compensation for over 36 years.

She therefore asked the court to declare that her fundamental human right to freedom from deprivation of property without compensation had been violated and to provide her with a remedy.

In the proceedings before the First Hall of the Civil Court, the Commissioner of Lands submitted that a notice to treat, offering compensation, had been issued in 1969 and sent to Ms Farrugia's father. He, in turn, had refused such compensation by means of a letter sent to the authorities that same year. Ms Farrugia admitted she was unaware of such offer.

The first court noted that it was only after Ms Farrugia had written to the Lands Commissioner in July 2001 asking what was to happen that the authorities had again remembered about the land. She was informed that the Lands Commissioner was awaiting specific instructions from the Ministry for Economic Services. It further resulted that in the period between the issue of the notice to treat in 1969 and Ms Farrugia's letter to the Commissioner of Lands in 2001, the department had taken no action whatsoever in respect of the case.

The first court had dismissed Ms Farrugia's claim of deprivation of property but had ruled that she was entitled to compensation for the excessive delays in this matter and awarded her Lm600.

Ms Farrugia appealed to the Constitutional Court, claiming that she had not been provided with an adequate remedy for the breach of her human rights.

The appellate court ruled that it had to decide about the period of time during which Ms Farrugia's rights had been violated. It was clear that the right of enjoyment of the land in question had been violated with effect from February 1969 to date. The delays in finalising the expropriation brought about an imbalance between the proportionality that had to be maintained between the interest of the public at large and that of the individual owner. As a result, Ms Farrugia's right to peaceful enjoyment of her property had been violated.

The Constitutional Court found that Ms Farrugia's rights had been violated with effect from November 1994 to the day she filed her constitutional application in December 2005. The court explained that Ms Farrugia had obtained ownership of the land through a contract of division that took place in November 1994. Consequently, the Constitutional Court increased the compensation due to Ms Farrugia to €5,124.63 (Lm2,200).