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MALTATODAY 12 February 2023

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14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 FEBRUARY 2023 NEWS TRUTH IS OF NO COLOUR WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY • 22 JANUARY 2023 • ISSUE 1212 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday → direct Bespoke investment service tailored to your specific needs. discretionary portfolio management and receive a top-up of up to €200* Apply now medirect.com.mt 2557 4400 MeDirect Bank (Malta) plc, company registration number C34125, is licensed to undertake the business of banking in terms of the Banking Act (Cap. 371) and investment services under the Investment Services Act (Cap. 370). PAGE 3 PAGE 3 Ten years on, no justice has been served on the Enemalta oil scandal PAGES 14-15 ENEMALTA OIL SCANDAL €1.95 Superboss capture is historic for Italy, but not the end of the Mafia... PAGES 8-9 End of an era? DARREN CARABOTT MATTHEW VELLA A parliamentary group meeting of the National- ist Party in Pietà saw party heavyweights and shadow ministers openly question Bernard Grech's dimin- ished presence as a leader. The air inside the PN just a year off the 2024 European and local coun- cil elections is yet again that of resignation, as the party seems to be inactive on various fronts, save for the unity it has garnered on opposition to Labour's amendments to the Crim- inal Code on Malta's abor- tion ban. On Tuesday last week, Bernard Grech's request to his leading MPs and shad- ow ministers to present him with working plans for the issues they will be following up in 2023, was met with questions from the parliamentary group about his role in shaping the political agenda. Voices such as those of Beppe Fenech Adami, the new heavyweight Joe Giglio, and newcomer Darren Carabott, asked Grech that it was not enough for them to have a plan of action. "He was told, 'we need sound and determined leadership'," one PN source told Malt- aToday about the meeting. Bernard Grech quizzed by PN heavyweights over 'weak leadership' MATTHEW VELLA GOZO'S association of tour- ism operators has reiterated its stand in favour of the extension of the helipad at Ta' Lambert into an airstrip, and likened the project to tax-funded projects delivering public services such as the Gozo Channel, the fast ferry or even basic roadworks. The GTA was reacting to a statement from former La- bour prime minister and MEP Alfred Sant, who poured cold water over the government's plans to extend the airstrip for a fixed-wing service to the is- land. 'Unprofitable' Gozo air service could be tax- funded - GTA Lingering cough and cold? Higher amounts of respiratory virus cases when compared to pre-COVID years BACK PAGE GTA takes exception at strong statement from former Labour PM Alfred Sant on 'bound-to-fail' service PN's young MP PAC chair is a straight-talker INTERVIEW MT2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 FEBRUARY 2023 COMMENT Abortion debate in Poland shames PN stance JAMES DEBONO PAGE 4 The Skinny Malta, shrunk down MICHAEL FALZON A mountain about casual talk PAGE 7 SAVIOUR BALZAN Enough of the green light and more red cards please PAGE 5 EDITORIAL The PN's waning influence PAGE 2 JOSANNE CASSAR Where do we draw the line at cancel culture? PAGE 6 "If a woman knows that the State is not the gloomy eye of Sauron that wants to control her, deprive her of rights, deprive her of the possibility of making decisions, if the state is open then women will be more ready to take on the great task of motherhood." What are we skinning? The news that Mary Spiteri, be- loved Maltese pop singer of early Eurovision near-win- ner Little Child and 'Labour musical epic' Ġensna fame, will see her life commemo- rated in a full-blown musi- cal extravaganza as part of the Valletta Cultural Agen- cy's 2023 programme. Why are we skinning it? Mainly because it's just the kind of lunatic-tonic we need as the weather gets grimmer and the murderous news decides to match it up, but also because it speaks volumes about Malta's rela- tionship with both spectacle and hero worship. Care to crack those vol- umes open? Nah, I'll leave that up to the academics. Let's focus on the other bit. Okay. But first you gotta explain to me what this 'Valletta Cultural Agency' is. Well, remember when our capital city took on the mantle of European Capital of Culture back in 2018? Yes, and the legacy it left behind was that of a city hollowed out of all life in favour of becoming a gen- trified hell hole with bou- tique hotels crammed at each corner. Go on... Yes, well. After 2018 shuffled off its allotted mortal coil, the benchwarmers at the helm of the Valletta 2018 Foundation needed a new home... et voila! The Val- letta Cultural Agency was born! A miracle! When they say the arts are magic, this is what they mean. So it's thanks to them that we'll be getting Mary Spi- teri: The Musical? Little Child Will Rock You will indeed be a VCA project through and through. Please tell me that's the official title. Alas, no. They went with the far more pro- saic Mary Spiteri: My Life. Missed a trick, there. You know what they've also missed? What? The opportunity to stage this at The Granaries for that full mass meeting effect. Instead, it's being given the antiseptic 'herit- age' treatment at the Medi- terranean Conference Cen- tre. They understand spectacle, but they don't understand their people. They are a gentrifying agency, after all. Do say: "Mary Spiteri is cer- tainly a notable figure in Maltese pop culture, but a full-blown production about her life and times feels a tad too grandiose." Don't say: "A tad too gran- diose? Unearned pomposity is part and parcel of the Mal- tese programme... VCA or otherwise. Get with it, kids!" No. 177 – Little Child Will Rock You maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 FEBRUARY 2023 CLASSIFIEDS & COMMERCIALS ARTS • TV • WHAT'S ON Sarah Mercieca Actress PHOTO ALBERT CAMILLERI maltatoday Get the critical perspective on politics, culture and society Be the first to enjoy our print newspaper with a subscription When you need to decode what politicians are saying, when you want to understand why Malta's crazy construction industry is impacting upon your life, when you need to step out of the social media and understand the world from a different perspective, our journalists and columnists will provide you with expert reporting, analysis and commentary. Order now at https;//maltatoday.uberflip.com MATTHEW AGIUS THE justice ministry has been ordered to pay over €600,000 to the owners of a publishing com- pany for uncollected compendi- ums of court judgments which were printed under a 25-year contract, signed in 1993. The contract, between the government and lawyer Tony De Gaetano, his wife Josette in their own name and on behalf of Legal (Publishing) Enter- prises, had been signed before the widespread proliferation of internet services in Malta. The contract stipulated that the size of the run of the pub- lications was to be of 500 per volume "in order to have al- ways available to the general public any such volumes on demand." It also gave the publisher, De Gaetano, the option to with- draw from the agreement after 25 years from its signing, with the condition that any remain- ing stock from the initial 500 run, even copies still being published by that time, were to be acquired by Government on demand of the publisher, at 75% of their maximum price in 1993. The 25-year period lapsed in 2018, but during the in- tervening period, the courts had switched to uploading judgments online in an elec- tronic format. At that point, the plaintiffs had accumulat- ed 55,000 loose-leaf volumes, 2,000 paperback volumes and 5,350 hardbound volumes in stock. The De Gaetanos proceeded to exercise their right, as stipu- lated in the contract, and called upon the government to hon- our its contractual obligations and buy the volumes at the agreed price. The total amount due for the stock, including the applicable VAT, came to €600,332. The First Hall of the Civil Court had handed down judge- ment in March this year, up- holding the plaintiffs' claim but only with respect to €262,556, representing the value of the volumes published up to time when judgments started to be published online. An appeal was subsequent- ly filed by the De Gaetanos, who requested the court order the defendants to pay the full amount, with legal interest, as well as to take delivery of the printed material. In a decision handed down in late January, the Court of Ap- peal, presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, Mr. Justice Jo- seph R. Micallef and Mr. Jus- tice Tonio Mallia, upheld the claim. The judges observed that the court of first instance had treated the contract as sui generis (unique), and that the plaintiff's rights emerged from the legal concept of mandate. "In truth it is true that the contract exhibited together with the court application is a sui generis one, in that in its first part it assigns a role to the plaintiffs, that of publishing the collection… at the plaintiffs' expense. The defendant was not obliged to pay the plain- tiffs, if not to acquire a number of copies of the publications for himself or as [otherwise] contemplated…under the same agreement. The Government made this agreement on con- dition that it does not compete with the plaintiff by publishing the judgments in question it- self." "At first glance, one could say that the contract has elements of mandate, with regards to the task of publishing using the words 'on behalf of', this does not, in and of itself, render the contract between the par- ties simply a mandate with the powerful elements of fiduciary obligations, that would mean that all the dealings between the parties must be regulated by the institute of mandate, as argued by the first court," the judges said. Citing case law which es- tablished that the parties to a contract are presumed to have considered the circumstances and their interests before sign- ing it. This meant that the re- lationship between the parties was regulated by the contract "and not some other principle, such as equity." Emphasising the fundamen- tal principle that the will of the parties had to be respected, the judges said courts should not attempt to use their discretion as a substitute to that which the parties had freely agreed to. The judges ordered the de- fendant ministry to pay the De Gaetanos the full amount, together with interest dating back to the notification of their judicial letter in December 2018. magius@mediatoday.com.mt Ministry must pay lawyer €600,000 for uncollected, printed judgements

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