The firm which cut and shaped the Parliament building's stonework has appealed a court’s decision ordering it to fork out €31,571.

Italian firm CFF Filiberti had been ordered by the First Hall of the Civil Court in March 2015 to pay Q Stone Ltd for the provision and sale of stone and building material.

Q Stone had said that despite repeatedly asking CFF Filiberti to pay their dues and in spite of the fact that the Italian firm had pledged to pay it in monthly installments, the payments were not effected.

Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff found that Filiberti had not provided any evidence to counteract Q Stone’s claims and had therefore ordered it to pay the amount.

Despite the fact that the Italian company had appealed and that the hearing was appointed for July 6, 2015, the Court of Appeals had rejected its plea, saying that the appeal was not filed according to law.

However, Filiberti is insisting that the date for the appeal hearing which had been communicated to it was September 3, 2015 and not May 18, 2015. Since it was misinformed, the company had, in fact, not turned up for the sitting.

For the same reason, it was unable to effect the guarantee it was obliged to pay.
Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo and Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri will be deciding on the legal point raised by the firm on May 27.

The two companies are embroiled in a number of civil cases. In one particular case, CFF Filiberti is accusing Q Stone Ltd of not only supplying inferior quality stone and falling back on its consignments, but also of hiding the quality tests it commissioned while the project was still under way.

The delays in supply and the inferior quality of the material provided led to considerable additional costs and expenses, CFF Filiberti had said.