European Court awards Valletta property owner €160,000

A woman from Balzan has been awarded €160,000 by the European Court of Human Rights which ruled that the Government breached her property rights. Agnes Gera de Petri Testaferrata Bonici Ghaxaq’s case concerned an order issued by the government in 1958 taking control of property she owned in Valetta subject to payment of annual compensation. She complained the ensuing proceedings took more than 30 years to be concluded and that, although the Constitutional Court eventually found a breach of her property rights, she had not been granted compensation. In its principal judgment of April 5, 2011 the European Court held that the Maltese Government was to pay the applicant €25,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €5,000 in respect of costs and expenses. Today’s judgment concerned the question of just satisfaction in respect of pecuniary damage.