Court rejects eviction plea of Valletta band club

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale threw out a plea by 24 people calling for the eviction of the bar and restaurant areas within the King's Own Band Club, on Republic Street, Valletta.

The applicants claimed the building was rented to the King's Own band club for €1,165, every six months, but the club's committed had sub-leased the bar and restaurant.

The court was told that the committee did not have the owners' permission to sublease the operation, opening the areas to non-members and tourists.

Paul Cortis and Clint Farrguia won a tender to run the bar and restaurants on 25 March, 2005. When one of the owners of the premises dined at the restaurant, and saw that the operation was being run as 'King's Own Bar and Restaurant', he advised the other 23 owners that the operation was being run separately from the lessee's management.

The 24 applicants claimed the band club's committee had sub-leased the premises in breach of their lease contract.

On its part, the band club committee said that the dining outlet had been in operation since before the Second World War, and that it had sub-leased the areas through a tendering process. The KOBC held that it was not the property that was being sub-leased, but the areas and the name of the band club itself.

In its decision, the court said the eviction application was unfounded, saying that the applicants' claim of not being aware that the club was operating as a restaurant was unfounded, and that the KOBC was acting according to its lease contract.