Ship-repair company awarded €1.7 million compensation over 1977 expropriation

A court has ordered the State to pay over €1.7 million in compensation for the expropriation of the land at the Corradino industrial estate from a ship repair company was accorded compensation by an Appeals Court, after originally having its claim upheld by the Land Arbitration Board.

The land comprised 4,650sq.m, which the company was accorded on a 99-year emphyteusis by the Nationalist administration in 1966.

The land was expropriated by the Labour government in 1977 for the creation of the Corradino industrial estate, but the company maintained a ship-repair yard at Coal Wharf, beneath Corradino, after expropriation.

Originally, Bezzina was accorded €1.52 million by the Land Arbitration Board, apart from interest at 8% accruing from 1977 to date on the value of €514,000.

The successor company, Bezzina Ship Repair Yard, originally petitioned the courts for €3.7 million in damages for the land concession that it was denied.

The company still retained part of the land for its business of ship-repair and construction and had petitioned the government for the return of the land that was not used for industrial development. An offer was made for land in Qawra, that was however outside the building zones.

In 2014, the Lands Authority offered a settlement of €1 million over and above interest of €1.37 million which the company was claiming, but the offer was rejected by director Victor Bezzina.

The Appeals Court threw out the Lands Authority’s appeal, upholding the demand for compensation: the court said the land was valued at €1.52 million in 2023, from which the total rental value accruing from 1987 onwards, the year Malta acceded to the European Convention of Human Rights. This amounted to €1.87 million, less 20% due to the uncertainty of the land having been leased for the entire period, to reach €1.49 million.

The Appeals Court however determined that damages owed to Bezzina Ship Repair would be €1.7 million, apart from interest at 8% accruing from 1977 to date on the value of €1.5 million.