MANOEL ISLAND (SPECIAL PROVISION) ACT (specialprovision)

MANOEL ISLAND (SPECIAL PROVISION)

CHAPTER 259

MANOEL ISLAND (SPECIAL PROVISION) ACT

To provide for the dissolution of the emphyteusis of parts of Manoel

Island granted to the Manoel Island and Malta Marina Company Limited

and to provide for matters connected therewith or ancillary thereto.

(5th March, 1976) *

ACT IV of 1976, as amended by Act XIII of 1983 and Legal Notice

423 of 2007 .

The short title of this Act is the Manoel Island (Special

Provision) Act.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -

"the Company" means the company known by the name of

"Manoel Island and Malta Marina Company Limited" constituted

by a deed dated 25th November, 1969, in the records of notary

Victor Miller;

"the emphyteusis" means the temporary emphyteusis granted by

a deed dated 5th September, 1970, in the records of notary Anthony

Attard of lands and buildings and other immovables at Manoel

Island, Gzira, including part of the sea-bed adjoining the said

island, described in the deed aforesaid and shown on a plan

attached thereto, and therein collectively described as the

emphyteutical land.

The emphyteusis shall, by virtue of this Act and without

further assurance, be dissolved with effect from 1st September,

1973, in consequence of defaults of the Company and any other

event occurring before the date aforesaid entitling the Government,

as the direct owner, to dissolve the emphyteusis, and all lands and

buildings and other immovables comprised in the emphyteusis

shall, likewise and with effect from the said date, revert to the

Government, as the direct owner, free from any privilege,

hypothec, lease, encumbrance and any other burden whatsoever.

(1) If any person considers that he ought to receive

compensation on the ground that he had possession of, or an

interest in or a right over, any property of any description, and that

that property, interest or right has been compulsorily taken

possession of or acquired under this Act, he may institute

proceedings before the First Hall of the Civil Court for the purpose

of determining his interest in or right over the property and the

amount of any compensation to which he may be entitled, and for

the purpose of obtaining payment of that compensation; and any

determination on any such proceedings shall be subject to appeal to

the Court of Appeal in accordance with the provisions of the Code

of Organization and Civil Procedure.

(2)

For the purposes of the determination of the compensation

*See Government Notice No. 124 of 5th March, 1976.

MANOEL ISLAND (SPECIAL PROVISION)

(if any) payable in respect of property, interest or right (if any)

compulsorily taken possession of or acquired under this Act, this

case shall be treated as a special case in which Parliament deems it

appropriate, in the national interest, to establish the criteria to be

followed, including the factors and other circumstances to be taken

into account, for that purpose.

(3) The criteria to be followed, and the factors and other

circumstances to be taken into account, in the determination of any

compensation that may be payable in consequence of any provision

of this Act shall be the following

(a) the Company had, on the date specified in article 3,

failed to observe and fulfil the terms and conditions of

the emphyteusis and such defaults entitled the

Government, as the direct owner, to dissolve the

emphyteusis;

(b) it is in the national interest that the emphyteusis shall

be dissolved and that the emphyteutical land shall

revert to the Government not only without the delays

inherent in judicial proceedings but also with effect

from a date nearer to that of the default of the

Company;

(c) there is no justification for the payment of

compensation by reason only that the emphyteusis is

dissolved ope legis and with effect retrospective to a

date subsequent to the default by the Company

entitling the direct owner to dissolve the emphyteusis;

(d) there were circumstances which (independently of any

institutional, procedural or other circumstances of a

similar nature, including vacancies among the

directors of the Company) made it impossible for the

Company to honour its commitments under the

emphyteusis and which led to the default of the

Company; in particular, but without prejudice to the

generality of the foregoing, these included

(i) the condition in the emphyteusis requiring either

that the Company should construct a breakwater

and deliver it to the Government or that the

duration of the emphyteusis be reduced from

ninety-nine to fifty years, and the following

consequent dilemma: the construction of the

breakwater could not be financed by the

Company except from proceeds to be derived

from the rest of the project; this inability of

constructing the breakwater at an early stage of

the project reduced the security the Company

could offer to a fifty year emphyteusis, and the

Company found it impossible to raise any

finance whatsoever;

(ii) the nature and extent of the development the

Company had committed itself to complete and

the expenditure (amounting to not less than six

MANOEL ISLAND (SPECIAL PROVISION)

million, nine hundred and eighty-eight thousand

and one hundred and twenty euro and twenty

cents (6,988,120.20) excluding the cost of the

breakwater) it had undertaken to incur: these

were commitments which the Company, long

before its defaults, did not have any real

prospects of honouring and which were made

even more impossible by the very considerable

drop in demand for the construction and

purchase of villas in Malta on which depended

the success of the Company’s project.