Heirs battle over millions

The widow of a prominent businessman, who left most of his estate to a Sicilian orphanage, is claiming that another 12 heirs "illegally and abusively" took more inheritance than they had a right to.

St Anthony's Orphanage in Sicily has joined Lilian Claire Miceli, widow of the late Gino Miceli, in a judicial protest against 12 nephews and nieces who, they claim, abusively took millions of euro worth of shares that were in fact bequeathed to the orphanage and the widow.

Mr Miceli had left the bulk of his inheritance to the orphanage which, having had no children of his own, he was extremely fond of.

The orphanage and the widow, therefore, asked the 12 heirs to respect Mr Miceli's will or face further legal action.

They explained that Mr Miceli - who was the majority shareholder of Miceli Holdings Ltd - passed away in September 2005 and his secret will, dated April 9 of that year, outlined that he had appointed them as the universal heirs of all his property.

Mrs Miceli was allocated one fourth of the estate while the orphanage was given the remaining three fourths.

The will also stated that 12 of his nephews and nieces and another three relatives (not involved in the case) were to each be given shares having a value of Lm5,000 (€11,600) in Miceli Holdings.

According to the protest, filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, Mr Miceli's intention was to give each of these 12 heirs Lm5,000 worth of shares - and not 5,000 shares that were worth Lm1 (€2.33) each at the time of Mr Miceli's subscription to the shares - and which were now worth millions of euro.

The orphanage and the widow explained that Miceli Holdings formed the largest part of Mr Miceli's estate.

The most valuable assets of the company consisted in shares in Simonds Farsons Cisk and Multigas Ltd which currently manages Enemalta Corporation's gas division.

There were two types of shares - high-value ordinary shares and redeemable preference shares that were not as valuable.

After his death, some of the 12 heirs met with Mrs Miceli and a legal representative of the orphanage with the aim of purchasing the shares in Miceli Holdings that had been left to the widow and to St Anthony's Orphanage.

The orphanage and the widow had no objection to selling the shares left to them but requested that the actual and market value of the company at the time of Mr Miceli's death be first established.

That way the number of shares, worth Lm5,000, would be established in order for them to be transmitted to the relevant heirs according to the will.

According to the judicial protest, it, however, resulted that in spite of them offering to purchase the shares, between March and December 2008 the 12 heirs "illegally and abusively" registered, in their name, a total of 60,000 shares (5,000 each) with a nominal value of Lm60,000 and a current market value of millions of euro.

They registered in their favour all the high-value ordinary shares and some of the other shares.

This was done by one of them, Mark Miceli Farrugia, in his capacity as company secretary, who registered the shares with the Registry of Companies.

The orphanage and the widow claimed that due to the shares' increase in value over the years they were now worth millions.

Consequently, the number of shares which must be added up to reach Lm5,000 was much lower than the 5,000 which they had actually each registered in their favour.

The orphanage and the widow claimed that the 12 heirs had acted illegally and abusively when they took hold of more than the Lm5,000 worth of shares left to them in the will. As a result they were made to suffer an extensive patrimonial loss.

They called on the 12 heirs to reintegrate the shares back into Mr Miceli's estate or pay compensation for the value of the shares taken by them illegally together with compensation for dividends owed to them to date.

They reserved the right to take further legal action against the heirs that could include initiating criminal proceedings.

Lawyers Doran Magri Demajo, Andrew Zammit and Francis Lanfranco signed the protest.