Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/634260
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 JANUARY 2016 News 11 MATTHEW VELLA MABEL Strickland's legacy looms large at Allied Newspapers, which houses the newspapers she and her father founded 80 years ago and where little of what happened in 20th century Malta has not run off its rollers. But there is also a gargantuan power-struggle taking place be- hind the scenes. And it concerns Strickland's legacy, its executors, the men who control The Times, and the pretenders to her inher- itance, heirs Robert Hornyold Strickland and his wife Dierdre. Inside the courtroom presided by Mr Justice Silvio Meli earlier this week, only this newspaper witnessed the acrimonious battle between the Stricklands and the Strickland Foundation, created by Mabel Strickland in 1979 to which she bequeathed her Lija stately home and shares in Allied News- papers. But Hornyold Strickland insists that his aunt's wishes were that she bequeath those assets to him as her sole heir, and that the executors of her legacy had to transfer the in- heritance to him upon obtaining Maltese citizenship. Hornyold Strickland has always insisted that the will his aunt had left was altered in 1979, paving the way for the newspaper's total con- trol by the Strickland Foundation. The late Guido de Marco was then the only person to know Mabel's wishes, and Hornyold Strickland says the offices of de Marco & Associates are still holding on to drafts of her will that "should an- swer many of the queries thrown up by the poor drafting of the will and the contradictions between it and the foundation document, and Mabel's other letters." It's this conundrum over Mabel Strickland's will that has both sides in court, fighting over the stately Villa Parisio and the control of the Foundation shares. One of his aunt's letters to him in July 1976 explicitly states that de Marco and Joseph Ganado would run the show up until he becomes a Maltese citizen. For 22 years, the trust's members – de Marco and Ganado amongst others – each controlled the foundation's shares directly; in 2010 those shares were registered in the name of the foun- dation, controlling 78% of the newspaper business. Hornyold Strickland is today the second largest shareholder with 13.3%, and expects that he be in- volved in the Strickland Founda- tion and the Allied board. For the last three decades – Hornyold Strickland told the court this week – his attempts at achiev- ing a resolution and gaining ac- cess to Mabel's correspondence with her executors de Marco and Ganado, and now their sons, have amounted to little. "It appears that the executors have in reality been competing with [me] to take con- trol of the estate," he said in an affidavit. "The families of the origi- nal executors now seem to have control and posses- sion of Mabel's villa, her controlling sharehold- ing in Allied and many of the family heritage items. This was never Mabel's intentions when making me her heir." According to her will, the Strickland Foundation was left the stately home in Lija as its rightful seat. Hornyold Strickland, on the other hand, appears in the will as having been granted only "right of use and habitation of the guest rooms with bathroom and study". But the Hornyold Stricklands charge the foundation with having taken possession of Villa Parisio, and this week's court sitting saw Dierdre Hornyold Strickland ac- cuse the foundation with "harass- ment" as she took the stand to tes- tify, unable to hold back the tears when describing how she con- fronts the foundation members. Present in the court were foun- dation members Frank Bonello and former Times editor Victor Aquilina, whom Hornyold Strick- land has filmed inside Villa Pari- sio on several occasions: moving furniture out, or hosting a lunch for Times staff. These alterca- tions, Hornyold Strickland told the judge, had been going on since 2009 when the heirs took up per- manence in Lija. "It's been extremely stressful when I know that my husband has been valiantly trying to find a rea- sonable settlement. We've been trying to live at this villa but we have been subjected to such har- assment that I felt I have had to record this harassment," she said. "To give an example of the har- assment we passed through, one instance I was making my hus- band a cup of coffee at 7:30am in my gown, when I found Vic- tor Aquilina in the house. I asked why he did not have the courtesy to phone ahead, and he refused to leave the villa. "When we first moved in they suggested we use a kitchenette instead of the main kitchen. Every time we left Malta, we would find all the utensils, pots and pans, sugar and flour that we had placed in the main kitchen, removed and placed in our bedroom. It hap- pened so many times it's been stressful." In her testimony, Hornyold Strickland became exceptionally emotional at recounting the time Aquilina hosted a lunch for Times journalists at the villa, during which she said they were told to 'clear out of the villa'. "When they had a lunch for Times journalists in our home this was an extraor- dinary imposition, because we were effectively told to clear our of our home so that Victor Aquilina hosts the lunch," she told Judge Meli, as she handed over to the court a photo of the table of journalists at lunch. Hornyold Strickland said that the family spent €2,000 to initiate spoliation proceedings against the foundation when the Mabel Strick- land study was locked, preventing Robert from entering. The matter was solved amicably. "Another time I found Bonello and Aquilina in the drawing room taking furniture out. They entered completely unannounced. We also had an argument because we were not sleeping in the guest bed- room." Hornyold Strickland says the foundation has been adamant that they make use of the guest bed- room and bathroom as indicated by Mabel in her will. "I have had my family staying with us, with the ridiculous sug- gestion that we use the one bath- room and bedroom, when Mabel said – as the foundation's statute says that the foundation can trans- fer its seat to anywhere in Malta. "It's been a long and arduous time when common sense would have dictated they could have transferred their seat elsewhere in the village and leave us in peace." The case is soon drawing to a close, with Judge Meli having yet again made a customary plea to both sides to resolve the matter be- fore he is to pronounce judgement on the case. In past sittings, Judge Meli has expressed his disappoint- ment at the two parties' refusal to reach a settlement. "I don't know what's between you," he had said back in 2013. "But it baffles me as to why both sides are refusing to reach an intelligent compromise." Stricklands charge foundation with 'constant harassment' In the ongoing battle for the control of Mabel Strickland's estate, her heirs insist they have been harassed by the foundation that controls Allied Newspapers Robert Hornyold Strickland and wife Dierdre, fighting for their inheritance. Inset: the late Mabel Strickland