Two ministers, together with the Qormi Local Council, were declared by a court to be unsuited in a case filed against them by a coffin manufacturer whose workshop in Valley Road, Qormi, suffered extensive damages after a heavy rainstorm in October 2010.

Karmenu Mifsud, 59, filed an application before the First Hall of the Civil Court claiming that the authorities were responsible for the substantial damages he had suffered when his workshop was flooded because of infrastructural works related to the national flood relief project.

Coffins had been carried away by the waters and damage was caused to the building and the machinery inside with losses amounting to around €350,000.

The court presided by Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima accepted the preliminary plea raised by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, the Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Environment together with the Qormi Local Council and declared them to be non-suited.

The court rejected the same plea made by Mepa, however, and by the Minister for Resources and Rural Affairs, since they were responsible for the national flood relief project. The court also ordered the director general of the works and services division to join the suit. The case continues.