Family awarded €75,000 in compensation over requisitioned house in Sta Venera

The owners of a property requisitioned and later turned into a political party club were yesterday awarded €75,000 in compensation after a court ruled that their fundamental human rights had been violated.

The family had filed a constitutional case after their Sta Venera house had been requisitioned by the government in 1967 to be eventually used as a party club.

The government originally declared that the property had been required to build a bypass from Ħamrun to Marsa. However, the project never materialised because the government had instead decided to excavate a tunnel to ease the traffic flow.

There was no need for the house to be knocked down and it remained vacant until 1973, when the government handed over the house to the Labour Party to be used as a political club against a payment of €104 a year, which was later raised to €382.

The family eventually filed a constitutional application before Mr Justice Raymond Pace in the first hall of the civil court against the Director of Social Accommodation and against the PL club of Sta Venera.

They did not insist on the eviction of the PL from the house but claimed that the government had overstepped its powers when it requisitioned their property and that they were not being adequately compensated for it.

Mr Justice Pace noted that the family did not have a remedy to contest the requisition, because case law going back to the mid-1970s had established that the government was entitled to requisition properties for the purpose of accommodating political party clubs. More recent case law had overturned these judgments, however, and the court, therefore, concluded that the requisition order was null and void. However, the court declared that the relationship between the owners and the PL was that of landlord and tenant.

The court found that the owners were entitled to compensation for the loss of their property and ordered the Director of Social Accommodation to pay them €75,000.

Lawyer Claire Bonello appeared for the family.