The provision of law that enabled a person occupying property by title of emphyteusis (long lease) to convert the title to one of perpetual emphyteusis was in violation of the property owners' fundamental human rights, the First Hall of the Civil Court ruled.

The ruling was given by Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi in a case filed by Michael Angelo Briffa, Joseph Briffa, Carmelo Briffa, Maria Concetta Doneo and Tarcisio Briffa against Nadia Merten.

The court heard that the late Antonio Briffa, who was the plaintiffs' father, had, in 1968, granted property known as Palazzo Gian Batttista in Zurrieq to Frank Cremona for forty years against payment of an annual groundrent of Lm365 (€850.22).

In 1997 Ms Merten purchased the remaining period of the original 40-year emphyteutical grant which terminated in August 2008.

Upon the termination, Ms Merten wished to implement her right at law to convert the temporary emphyteusis to a perpetual one by paying the owners six times the original groundrent.

The owners however requested the court to declare that the provision of law utilised by Ms Merten was in violation of their human rights and to declare that Ms Merten had no legal title to the property.

In its judgment, the court pointed out that case law on this issue was contradictory for while there was one judgment which had concluded that section 12 of the Housing Decontrol Ordinance, which permitted this conversion, was in violation of an owner's human rights, other judgments had not concurred with this interpretation.

In a recent judgment delivered by the Constitutional Court earlier this year, that court had ruled that each case had to be decided on its particular merits in order to establish whether the conversion of a temporary emphyteusis to a perpetual one was in violation of the owner's human rights.

A court appointed expert had concluded that the property in issue was worth €1,514,500. If the mechanism contained in section 12 of the Housing Decontrol Ordinance was applied, this would mean that Ms Merten would pay the Briffa family €5,101.32 in annual groundrent.

This meant that if one were to calculate one per cent of the value of the property per annum, the sum obtained would be three times the groundrent payable in terms of law.

The court therefore upheld the Briffa family's case and ordered Ms Merten to vacate the property within three months.