The company running the Rinella film studios is considering asking the court for a re-trial, after it was ordered to return the facilities to the government due to unpaid rent amounting to €1.4 million.
Mediterranean Film Studios, the only professional film facility in Malta, which is controlled by entrepreneur Jost Marten, claims the judges based their decisions on the wrong conclusions.
The company also claims that it was former minister John Dalli, at the time responsible for the film industry, who had agreed to a temporary suspension of the payments due. He denies the allegation.
Last week, the Court of Appeal decided the studios must be returned to their owner [the Land Department] within 40 days.
The decision was taken after a nine-year court battle in which the government accused the film management company of failing to pay an annual ground rent of €50,000 per year since 1998, following a 65-year lease agreement entered into with the government in 1995.
A spokesman for Mediterranean Film Studios Ltd said that while, the company would respect the court judgment and vacate the property in due course, its lawyers were considering asking for a re-trial.
“The Court of Appeal decided the case in favour of the government by stating, amongst others, that MFS should have paid, even in instalments, without expecting the government to drop procedures.”
According to the company, the judges erroneously declared three times that MFS had deposited a bank guarantee in court, when in reality the bank guarantee was deposited by third party investors who had no connection with MFS.
The fact that the court’s decision is based on the presumption that the bank guarantee and relative funds were provided by the MFS constitutes an obvious mistake on the face of the record
“The fact that the court’s decision is based on the presumption that the bank guarantee and relative funds were provided by the MFS constitutes an obvious mistake on the face of the record, and therefore provides ground for re-trial,” the company said.
The private company also claims it was then Finance Minister John Dalli who had given them the go-ahead not to pay ground rent dues until it regained its financial footing.
It said the court did not address at any point the issue raised by the MFS that “it was the minister responsible for the film industry in 2004 who had supported the company to suspend payments of ground rent until the company was in a better financial situation, and that it was his successor [Austin Gatt] who, when the company was eventually in a position to resume payments in 2005/2006, refused to consider payment of the arrears and instead opted to file eviction procedures”.
Asked to comment, Mr Dalli rejected the claim. “No idea of what they are talking about,” he told Times of Malta. “I do not believe I could ever have condoned the state of affairs in which the company ended up vis-a-vis the Land Department.”
MFS itself rejected criticism made by the government following the court decision: that the film facilities had been left in a state of disrepair to the detriment of the local film industry.
The statements made by the Home Affairs Ministry were “false” and totally “unfounded”, it said – the facilities were still in a good shape and used till this very day.
The Court of Appeal had ruled that the company failed to respect the conditions of its agreement with the government.
According to court records, MFS ran up a €1.4 million debt with the Land Department in unpaid rent while it was also massively in debt with other creditors, including some €5.4 million owed to Bank of Valletta and Vassallo Builders.