Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/685221
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 MAY 2016 3 News C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Euro MToday.pdf 1 30/03/2016 10:26 Maltese company vindicated in Parliament stone legal saga MATTHEW AGIUS THE Court of Appeal has con- firmed a judgement ordering the Italian company responsible for the construction of the facade for the new parliament in Valletta to pay its Maltese stone suppliers. Italian company CFF Filiberti Srl had filed an appeal against a judge- ment ordering it to pay €31,500 to Q Stone – the two companies are embroiled in several court cases, with Filiberti accusing its Maltese supplier of furnishing inferior quality stone, and Q Stone accus- ing the Italians of non-payment. The contractual disagreement has been featured in the Italian media. Last February, present- ers from Italian TV programme Le Iene had ambushed the Prime Minister as he attended an event in Malta, asking him questions about the issue. In 2011, CFF Filiberti Srl had been tasked by the BIB Joint Ven- ture, the main contractor respon- sible for the construction of the Renzo Piano parliament, with con- structing the cladding of the façade while Q-Stone Ltd was nominated supplier of the stone. Originally, the Italian contractor had complained of delays due to the quality of the stone, which was excavated from Gozo and shipped to its Parma plant, where it was cut into thousands of different shapes before being shipped back to Malta. Filiberti claimed that it ended up shipping more than 200 extra truckloads of stone to satisfy the client. "The reality is that Filiberti was trying to delay justice in view that he owed money to several parties," Q Stone told MaltaToday. "Today he lost his first in a series of court cases for money owed." The Mal- tese stone supplier pointed out that in spite of their case contest- ing the quality of the stone, Filib- erti had continued to take delivery of it – indeed the new Parliament has since been fully constructed and is operational. Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff had previously upheld Q Stone's claim, in the absence of proof to the con- trary being exhibited by the Italian company. Although CFF Filiberti had filed an appeal in July last year, this had been declared abandoned after the company failed to appear in court. CFF Filiberti had insisted that it had been notified with the wrong date for the hearing – 3rd Septem- ber 2015 – when it should have been 18th May, 2015. Filiberti's lawyer, Franco Galea, had argued that it could never have filed the appeal correctly, for this reason. But lawyer Maxilene Pace, repre- senting Q Stone, had pointed out that, while it was true that the Ital- ian judicial authorities had deliv- ered the notification after the case had been declared abandoned, Fil- iberti had already received a postal notification which was valid for the purposes of Maltese law. CFF Filiberti could therefore not request a rehearing of the appeal as it had failed to appear for its ap- peal, despite being duly notified in the post. Furthermore, she argued that it was common practice for two parallel methods of notifica- tion to be adopted with regard to foreign companies and that this was also in accordance with the law. In a decision handed down on Friday, Chief Justice Silvio Camill- eri, and Justices Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri, in the Court of Appeal in its superior ju- risdiction, held that Filiberti had evidently been notified twice by Q Stone, once by post in May last year, before another summons was subsequently sent through the Ital- ian judicial authorities. The fact that two notifications were sent did not render the first one invalid, as multiple notification attempts are often filed together to ensure that notification takes place, said the court, holding the notification to be "perfectly valid."