Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1465732
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 APRIL 2022 3 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS A newly-elected opposition MP is fighting a €25,000 claim filed against her by the man who raised her as a father, claiming she 'hid' the fact that she was not his child. This emerged from a judge's decision to reduce a garnishee order filed by Hector Cilia, to- gether with proceedings institut- ed in January, against his ex-wife Pauline and her daughter Re- bekah, who was recently elected to parliament for the first time on a PN ticket. Hector Cilia's lawyer cites a judgement in separate proceed- ings, in which a DNA expert had confirmed that Rebekah was not his biological daughter. In a previous case filed by Hec- tor Cilia for the court to amend the MP's birth certificate and re- flect the fact that he was not her father, the young MP was said to have been aware of this fact "for over 10 years but had held back from informing him of this in or- der not to hurt him." Coincidentally, PN leader Ber- nard Grech had formerly been Hector Cilia's lawyer before tak- ing up politics. Cilia subsequently filed a case for damages against his ex-wife and her daughter Rebekah, alleg- ing having been misled by them over his paternity. A €25,000 garnishee order was also filed against the MP for gifts given to her, including two lap- tops, two iPhones, a two-year mobile phone contract, car fu- el, a holiday in Milan, and other trips abroad. He also filed a warrant of pro- hibitory injunction against her mother for €125,000, which he claims represents expenses he had paid for the daughter's edu- cation and upbringing, accusing them of having conspired to hide the truth from him. The garnishee, which is sepa- rate from the still-pending case for damages, was issued in Jan- uary 2022, with the respondent filing a case contesting the pre- cautionary warrant in February. In court filings contesting the garnishee, the MP's lawyer, Robert Thake, argued that the amount requested was not jus- tified and was excessive, also claiming that the plaintiff had arbitrarily come up with the €25,000 figure without backing it up with documentation. The Court disagreed with a previous decision from judge Christian Falzon Scerri that gar- nishee orders did not require a detailed breakdown of the sum mentioned, noting that "what should not happen is a plaintiff inventing an imaginary amount or randomly mentioning a sum that is entirely detached from reality." Nevertheless, the MP was suc- cessful in reducing the garnish- eed amount to €21,800. The judge went on to state that whilst it was possible that the plaintiff could succeed in prov- ing his €25,000 claim in the civil case he had filed against the de- fendant in January, the court did not feel that he had succeeded in proving his claim for now. When contacted by Malta- Today about the case, the MP's lawyer described the monetary claim as "spurious", adding that his client had filed a reply and a counter-warrant on Friday. "In essence, Ms Cilia is being accused of not having immedi- ately and coldly discarded the man who raised her and who she loved as her father. The fact that during this time gifts were exchanged was entirely inciden- tal to Rebekah, a young student at the time, whose only inten- tion was that of preserving the life she had always known and of maintaining her relationship with the man who raised her, for as long as she could," he said. Newly-elected Nationalist MP fights €25,000 claim filed by mother's ex- husband after paternity test proves he is not her father MP fights €25,000 claim from mother's ex-husband Nationalist MP Rebekah Cilia