A court has ruled that a supermarket should not be made to pay extra after water and electricity bills were issued in error.
Madam Justice Lorraine Schembri Orland delivered this judgment following a case filed by Victor Spiteri, the proprietor of V & F Supermarket in Sliema, against Enemalta and against the Water Services Corporation.
Mr Spiteri told the court that he had opened his supermarket in 1990 and for the first four years he had regularly received water and electricity bills from the WSC and had punctually paid them.
In mid-1994 the WSC had asked him to pay an additional sum of €27,300.25 for electricity consumption between December 1993 and April 1994. This had been followed up by another request from WSC for payment of another additional sum of €3,268 for electricity consumption between April and August 1994.
When Mr Spiteri contested the bills it resulted that they had been issued after the two corporations realised that the original bills contained errors made by their staff. Enemalta had admitted its error but had threatened Mr Spiteri with disconnection of the electricity supply to the supermarket and to his residence if the bills were not paid. The corporation had only offered Mr Spiteri a discount of €2,300 on the bills he had contested.
Mr Spiteri requested the court to prohibit Enemalta and WSC from disconnecting the electricity supply and to declare that he did not owe the corporations any additional sums for the years between 1990 and August 1994.
Enemalta submitted that when it had examined its records it had realised that the meter was in good working order and had not been tampered with. The additional bills sent to Mr Spiteri reflected the actual consumption of electricity in the supermarket. If Mr Spiteri was not ordered to pay the additional bills he would be deriving an unjust advantage from the errors made by the corporation's staff in the reading of the meters and the imputting of the data.
On his part Mr Spiteri said that he would be prejudiced if he was ordered to pay the additional bills because they constituted an expense which he, in his capacity as a business man, had not budgeted for. He had based his budgets on the basis of the original bills he had received and paid.
Madam Justice Schembri Orland ruled that the errors in the original bills received by Mr Spiteri were the responsibility of the two corporations. Mr Spiteri had no control over the procedure of meter reading, reporting of the meter reading and the issue of the bills. All these were carried out by the corporations' employees.
The court concluded by finding in favour of Mr Spiteri. The court ruled he did not owe any additional payments to the corporations for the period between 1990 and August 1994. The corporations were also ordered not to disconnect Mr Spiteri's electricity supply to the supermarket or to his home.