Caravan owners who contested an eviction order and lost are insisting that whether they had legal title was “irrelevant” to their case.

The 12 caravan owners and Armier Developments Ltd, a company made up of boathouse owners, have appealed against the court sentence that threw out their claims.

Last month Mr Justice Anthony Ellul ruled that the controversial caravans in Little Armier bay had no legal title and structures on publicly owned property along the shore were illegal.

It was inconceivable, the judge had insisted, that a letter handed to the boathouse owners by the Government could be construed as a binding contract allowing people who had usurped public land to continue occupying it.

The caravan owners contended that the crux of the court case should not have been whether or not they had legal title over the land in question because they had never claimed legal title.

In the appeal filed by lawyers Ian Refalo and Sarah Grech, the owners argued that the case revolved around an agreement they had with the Government on use of the land in the area.

They also contested the court’s ruling that there was no written and signed agreement between the parties. “An agreement need not necessarily be written to be enforceable,” they said, citing two ‘agreements’ reached in April 2003 and February 2008.

They asked the court of appeal to overturn the civil judgment.

Two years ago Armier Developments Ltd and the caravan occupants had sued the Commissioner of Land and the Attorney General, requesting the court to declare they were legally entitled to make use of their structures. They also sought a declaration that an eviction order issued against them by the Land Commissioner was unenforceable.

The crux of the court case should not have been whether they had legal title over the land

In April 2003, just before the election, then Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg had written to Armier Developments Ltd saying the Government was prepared to accept the construction of a number of units in the area subject to a number of conditions.

The arrangement was meant to regularise the illegal status of the shanty town that developed over the years in Armier.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com

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