Company asked to pay €475,000 for Lascaris war rooms’ lease

The Lascaris war rooms were leased in 1993 to the private company, owned by Alpine Ltd, Ignatius Borg and Carmel Galea, when the place was refurbished and reopened it as a tourist attraction.

The war rooms had been a command hub during WWII from where movements of enemy aircraft could be tracked and plotted on a large map to facilitate air and ground defence coordination.

The Lands Department claims LHP owes money for the lease of the war rooms for the 1994-2007 period, because the only rent paid was Lm4,000 (€9,800) for a year between 1993 and 1994.

The establishment closed down in 2005 and passed to Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna (FWA) in 2009. FWA has carried out extensive restoration works on the site after receiving €200,000 from the Good Causes fund, which is funded from national lottery takings.

On Tuesday, Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco turned down LHP’s claims that the Lands Commissioner had been wrong to invoke this sum of money for payment.

Citing Article 466 of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure, any government department can sue for the recovery of any debt for “services, supplies, rent or for any licence or other fee or tax due” by making a declaration on oath that states the nature of the debt and the debtor’s name.

LHP argued that since article 466 only refers to rents, fees and tax, the Lands commissioner couldn’t have invoked this article to recover ground rent. It added that the lease had been rescinded by a court back in 2006, the arrears had been time-lapsed, and that since it was owed €423,700 for exhibits at the war rooms, these should have been kept by government in lieu of the ground rent.

On his part, the Lands commissioner insisted the company occupied the site until December 2007.

The judge deferred judgment on whether the case was prescribed or on the money allegedly owed by LHP. But he decreed that article 466 clear applied to any payment owed to government, including ground rent, and rejected LHP’s argument.

Judgement is now deferred for 14 March, 2011.