The Government has been ordered to pay a total of €20,000 in damages to two companies that owned properties in Valletta, which were expropriated in 1993.
Coleiro Brothers Ltd and B. Tagliaferro and Sons Limited filed constitutional applications in 2009 against the Commissioner of Land and the Attorney General.
They told Mr Justice Tonio Mallia, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, that between them they owned two-thirds of three properties in Archbishop Street and a property in Strait Street.
In 1993, the properties were expropriated by the Government but no use had been made of them.
The companies complained they had been deprived of their properties and of access to the courts. Consequently, they claimed their fundamental human rights had been violated.
The court pointed out the Commissioner of Land had expropriated the properties to be used as offices for the Attorney General.
Although the expropriation had taken place in 1993, no further action was taken because the properties were occupied by squatters and tenants.
Preliminary conversion plans had been drawn up but the Attorney General’s Office had repeatedly requested the Land Department, between 1996 and 2007, to evict the squatters.
The Land Department had written to the Housing Authority to provide alternative accommodation for the occupiers.
Eviction orders were eventually issued by the Justice Ministry and the properties were finally vacated in 2007, when the Attorney General’s Office submitted new plans to the Malta Environment Planning Authority.
Mr Justice Mallia concluded that the expropriation in itself was not in violation of the companies’ fundamental human rights but found the delay in the finalisation of the expropriation process did amount to violation.
The court also found the firms had suffered a violation as they had not had access to the courts to conclude the finalisation process between 1993 and 2009, when the law was changed.
The court awarded each company €10,000 in moral damages.