Yacht Club in limbo over illegal expropriation of land

The Royal Malta Yacht Club (RMYC) is appealing a court sentence which upheld a Malta Playing Fields Association (MPFA) claim that the government’s expropriation of 672 square metres of land leased to the association in 2002 was illegal.

The result is that the sentence revokes the subsequent lease of the same land to the RMYC. The court described the case as one of “two weights and two measures” by the National Sports Council.

Evidence presented in court also casts a light on former Minister Austin Gatt’s style of government having told former MPFA chairman Anthony Bonello that “in the same way that it was we who have given you the land, we can take it back,” in a meeting in 2008.

The RMYC was relocated from Fort Manoel, where it had had its headquarters for the previous 40 years, after its land was granted to the MIDI consortium.

But the land which presently hosts the RMYC’s premises and sailing school was originally leased for 49 years to the MPFA in 2002 on condition that it would be used exclusively for sports facilities, including “offices, gymnasiums, sports clinics and other sports facilities” – eight years later this same land was expropriated and leased to the Royal Malta Yacht Club after the club moved out because of the MIDI project.

The Ta’ Xbiex lido had been run by the Playing Fields Association since the 1950s. In 2002 parliament approved a deed envisioning the development of unspecified sports facilities run by the association. 

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) approved a permit for the development of a sailing school by the Playing Fields Association in 2006 to which the government made no objection.

The order to expropriate the land from the Malta Playing Fields Association was given by the National Sports Council, which claimed that the association was not honouring its contractual obligations that the land was to be used for a public purpose. 

The Sports Council insisted that there was no reference to a sailing school in the contract signed with the Playing Fields Association and that the land in question was not used for a number of years. 

In September 2009 the same land previously given to the MPFA, together with the restaurant and the former Malta Maritime Authority office, was granted through a temporary emphyteusis of 49 years to the RMYC.

A Lands Department official testified that “the Commissioner of Lands was asked to expropriate the land to allocate it to the Royal Malta Yacht Club because in the opinion of the Malta Sports Council, this was to be put to a better use.”  The MPFA was offered  €12,000 in compensation for the expropriation but this amount was never accepted by the MPFA which proceeded legal proceedings against the expropriation.

Expropriation not in public interest

The court sentence concludes that the alleged breach in contract conditions was used as a pretext by the Sports Council to expropriate the land.

“If the breach of contract was so serious, the council should have simply terminated the emphyteusis,” the court said. “Instead it erroneously chose the easier way; that of expropriating the land.”

The court concluded that an expropriation order has to be justified by the “public interest” and not by the fact that the land was left in a state of neglect.

“This court has no doubt that no public interest justified this expropriation.”

Moreover the court noted that the Playing Fields Association’s intention was to use the land for the running of a sailing club, the same use made of the land by the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

The only difference, according to the sentence, is that the Royal Malta Yacht Club is a “private entity” whose facilities are open only to members. The sentence describes the case as one of “two weights and two measures.”

The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away

While on the face of it, it was the National Sports Council which was calling the shots, court evidence points at the direct involvement of former Minister Austin Gatt, who was responsible for the Malta Maritime Authority.

Anthony Bonello – former chairman of the Malta Playing Fields Association – claims that in 2008 he had received a phone call from Mark Portelli, a former chairman of the Malta Maritime Authority, in which he was informed that the Authority needed the land in question. 

Subsequently the minister summoned the officials of the association for a meeting in which he told them that the government intended to take the land back.

Bonello claimed under oath that Gatt had told him: “In the same way that it was we who have given you the land, we can take it back.”

In a statement issued on 11 February, 2009, Gatt’s ministry claimed that the government had committed itself to relocate the RMYC because of the MIDI project. In this light, the government announced that it was handing over the Malta Maritime Authority offices in Ta’ Xbiex and the adjacent Malta Playing Fields Association offices to the RMYC.

The ministry argued that the association had not administered any playing field since the setting up of local councils, who took over the responsibility for playing fields.

“Furthermore, the association never administered maritime schools and in the light of this lack of organisational competence, the government felt that the association’s project was not in the best public interest”.

Yacht Club’s reaction

Contacted by MaltaToday, Royal Malta Yacht Club commodore Godwin Zammit expressed the club’s disagreement with the court’s decision and announced that an appeal has already been filed.

The RMYC objected to the court’s description of the RMYC as a ‘private entity’.

“This is not a private organisation but a public one and this because no one is prohibited from joining the club as a member and also because the club is administered by a committee whose members work voluntarily and are elected by the members of the club”.

Zammit insists that the club is not a profit-making organisation since all proceeds made by the club are spent on the club itself with the aim of furthering the development of yachting in Malta.

“The way the club is organised is no different from any normal sports club and is registered as a sports organisation with the Kunsill Malti tal-iSport.”

The Royal Malta Yacht Club insists that the use it is making of the land, namely that of a sailing school, is in the public interest.

“Through its sailing activities and its sailing school the club is providing the opportunity for people to learn to sail and to participate in sailing as a sport.”

Zammit insists that it is of utmost importance for Malta to have a yacht club that promotes sailing, especially considering that Malta is constantly promoted as a maritime hub. The club also contributes to the economy by hosting foreign sailing schools that have come to train sailors here in the winter.

He also referred to the many local and international sailing events organised by the club, including the Rolex Middle Sea race.

“This race is a major international race of great benefit to the island’s economy and very much in the public interest. The club enjoys an impeccable international reputation and is important to the growth of the yachting industry.”

According to Zammit, the expropriation and subsequent use of the land in question falls within the definition of public interest given in various judgements decided by the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court.