The owners of a house in Marsa which was requisitioned over 60 years ago have been awarded €40,000 in damages for the violation of their human right to enjoyment of property.

Josephine D'Amato, as the three-quarters owner of the house filed a constitutional application in the First Hall of the Civil Court against the Housing Authority and the Attorney General.  Emanuel Bonnici, Marion Camilleri and Emily Busuttil as the owners of the remaining quarter of the house were later called into the suit.

The owners told the court that the house had been requisitioned in April 1956 by the government and rather than being used to house homeless persons was utilised by the authorities as the district Social Services Department.  The owners were given €13.58 in rent per annum, though the last rent they had received was in 1996.

In their application they claimed that they had suffered a violation of their fundamental human right to enjoyment of their property, as they had been deprived of the use of the house for more than 60 years against payment of a miserly rent.  They asked the court, presided over by Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti to grant them a remedy.

The court said that no one could be deprived of their property except for a legally identified purpose and provided that adequate compensation was paid.

No proportionality had been maintained between the rights of the owners and the right of the government.

There was no doubt that the 1956 requisition order had been validly issued in terms of law, though the court added that the house had never been used as social housing but as a district office.

In this particular case, no proportionality had been maintained between the rights of the owners and the right of the government to make use of private property for a public person.  The owners had been awarded an annual rent of €13.58, when the actual rental value of the property, as established by an architect, was of €4,725 per annum.  This left no doubt that the principle of proportionality had been breached.

The court upheld the owners' claims against the Housing Authority and ordered it to pay the owners €40,000 in total  as compensation for the violation of their human rights.