Labour ordered out of €50 a month Valletta Republic Street club

The Labour Party and the local committee running its Valletta club have been ordered to vacate their Republic Street premises within 30 days, following a judgment that continued occupation would perpetuate a breach of the owners’ property rights.

The Rent Regulation Board, presided over by Magistrate Claudio Zammit, delivered its decision a few days ago and ordered the PL to pay all costs of the proceedings.

The case concerns the club at 41/2, Republic Street, which the judgment records had been rented by Labour  for approximately 70 years. According to the owners’ application, the annual rent was €604.12 – approximately €50 a month.

The applicants, members of the Jaccarini family and other co-owners, including Pavillion Jewellers Ltd, brought the eviction proceedings after obtaining a constitutional judgment earlier this year.

That judgment, delivered in February, found that the operation of rent protection legislation breached their property rights. It ordered the State Advocate to pay €254,307 in compensation, with interest from the judgment date until payment. Taxpayers will be forking out the compensation on behalf of labour.

Despite being duly notified, neither defendant appeared at the eviction hearing. The Board also recorded that they had submitted no notes or documents before the sitting.

The case proceeded under the special summary procedure in Article 16A of Chapter 69. The Board stressed that the defendants’ absence did not remove its obligation to examine whether the owners’ claims were justified.

Labour’s position was complicated by its ownership of an undivided 4% share in the property, acquired from one of the co-owners in 2004.

The Board acknowledged that share but ordered eviction, referring to another case in which tenants who also held an ownership interest were ordered to leave.

The Court did not uphold every request.

It declined to determine a declaration that the defendants could no longer rely on Chapter 69, considering that request constitutional in nature. It nevertheless upheld the owners’ claim that they were no longer obliged to renew the lease and granted eviction.

It also rejected the requested declaration that every additional day of occupation caused damages, finding no evidence of those damages in the case record.

The operative order gives Labour 30 days to vacate and places all case costs on them. 

In order to gain more time, Labour may appeal the judgement.