The Constitutional Court has put an end to a breach of rights claim by construction magnate and hotelier Angelo Xuereb, throwing out an appeal to suspend criminal proceedings pending the termination of arbitration proceedings.

A simple examination of the records of both court cases would have provided a clear solution and would have sufficed for the constitutional claim to have been ‘thrown out from the very start,’ the Court declared.

The whole court saga concerned a lease agreement signed in December 2008 whereby Suncrest Hotels plc had rented to EZ Ltd premises in Qawra which had since been utilised as a lotto office.

Upon the expiration of said lease in February 2015, the lessees had refused to move out, prompting Suncrest Hotels to cut off the electricity supply to the leased premises, whilst taking their grievance to arbitration.

However, the lessees had filed a counterclaim arguing that the termination date of the lease was in June 2016, rather than February 2015 as claimed by Suncrest Hotels. Moreover, the lessees claimed damages for loss of earnings suffered on account of the fact that the electricity supply had been disconnected by the lessor.

Furthermore, in December 2015, the police pressed charges against Angelo Xuereb, alongside his two daughters Claire Zammit and Denise Xuereb, as owners of Suncrest Hotels, for the arbitrary exercise of a pretended right, ragion fattasi, namely the disconnection of the electricity supply.

Father and daughters requested the suspension of the criminal proceedings pending the termination of the arbitration procedure, a request which, however, was rejected by the Magistrates’ Court.

It was this rejection which prompted Mr Xuereb and his two daughters to file a separate application against the Attorney General, joined in the suit by EZ Ltd as well as Marianne Bezzina and Felix Mifsud as lessees, claiming that their right to a fair hearing had been violated and requesting an adequate remedy.

When even that request was turned down by the First Hall, Civil Court, the applicants filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court, the highest court within the Maltese legal system, which confirmed the earlier pronouncement albeit on different grounds.

This Court, presided over by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri and Mr Justices Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri, declared that a simple examination of the records of the criminal case and the arbitration proceedings clearly showed that whereas in the former the parties were Mr Xuereb and his daughters, in the latter the party was Suncrest Hotels, a different ‘person’ at law.

Since the parties were different, one case could have no effect or impact upon the other, the court observed.

‘This reasoning ought to have been enough for the [constitutional] case to have been thrown out from the start. It also suffices to reject the appeal without any further waste of time,’ the Court said.