Appeals court refuses heirs’ bid to annul Church donation

A Court of Appeal has turned down a request by the heirs of a stately home in Marsaskala, to overturn the first court’s refusal to annul a donation contract of Villa Manduca and its estate to the Maltese Archdiocese.

The case concerns the donation of Villa Manduca and its gardens, together with other properties adjoining it, to the Church of the Holy Rosary in Marsaskala. The 1997 contract was drawn up by the siblings Maria Carmela Debattista and Agatha Formosa Gauci, who owned a ‘giuspatronat’ on the said chapel.

The building, located in the main square of Marsaskala, was the summer residence of wealthy Maltese merchants and barons of the Manduca Family in 1850.

According to their wishes, they wanted the archdiocese to have the property in return for the celebration of memorial masses and an annual veneration for the Holy Virgin of the Rosary, whose cult they had a profound devotion for. Apart from being donated the properties, the ecclesiastical authorities also took patronage of the chapel’s painting of the Holy Virgin of the Rosary, as well as other items of gold and precious stones, silverware and holy vestments used for venerations. The chapel is known locally as Tal-Barunissa.

In 2013, the owners’ heirs took the Maltese archdiocese to court in a bid to regain their property, accusing the church authorities of having left the house in ruins and failing to keep up with their obligations outlined in the 1997 donation contract.

The extensive villa and its estate, which includes a chapel with works of art and other silverware, were donated to former Archbishop Joseph Mercieca to be used as a retirement home for clerics or for pastoral purposes. Instead, the Church requested planning permission to demolish nine of the estate’s buildings on St Anne Street, Marsaskala, to erect a seven-storey complex.

Formosa Gauci passed away in 2007, and with the appointment of a new archbishop, the heirs of Villa Manduca proceeded with court action to regain their property. In January 2009, the archdiocese accepted to return Villa Manduca and the chapel to the heirs, and instead retain the adjacent estate of nine properties.

Their heirs were denied their request to annul the contract and the dispossession of the Archdiocese of Malta.

While the heirs argued that the properties were expected to be used only as a residence for priests or seminarians of the Archdiocese, the Court of Magistrates stated that this restriction did not explicitly appear in the donation contract and that the Marsaskala parish was granted the right to use the property for other purposes, “as long as they are of a spiritual, pastoral, or educational nature.”

The court said the voluminous evidence presented to it showed that while not used as a house for clergy, the property had been used for worship services, meetings of different religious groups, activities of the Legion of Mary, religious, formative, and socio-cultural activities for children and youth, English-language masses for foreigners, summer schools, prayer groups, and even a summer camp for refugee children.

The Court added that it found nothing objectionable in turning the property into a pastoral centre with a restaurant and shop attached to it.

And it said that the breach of various pious obligations for the donors, was not a condition that could lead to a revocation of the donation.