Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/849592
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 JULY 2017 8 JAMES DEBONO The owners of a dilapidated ho- tel in Buskett have now applied to build an imposing five-storey high home for the elderly. The same owners were already granted a controversial permit in 2010 to demolish the existing building and build a 58-room ho- tel on a slightly reduced footprint. While presently the built-up area occupies a 1,700 square me- tre footprint and the approved hotel occupied 1,614 sq.m, the proposed old people's home will occupy 2,225 sq.m. The home will have two levels of underground parking for 104 cars. The overlying five storeys – a ground floor, three overlying floors and a receded floor – will include 122 rooms. It would also include a 213 sq.m chapel, a 220 sq.m dining area, a therapeutic pool and a 235 sq.m internal yard and a 700 sq.m ter- raced garden. The 2010 permit for re-open- ing the hotel had been granted on condition it would never be turned into private residences, and that the structure would only be used for tourism-related pur- poses. At the time, applicant Peter Borg objected when the Environ- mental Protection Directorate wanted to remove the term "mul- ti-ownership" from the develop- ment description, arguing this clause would give him the option of selling rooms under timeshare agreements, in view of the "fickle and volatile" tourism industry. It was eventually agreed that he would bind himself to manage the hotel as a single owner without subdividing any parts of it. The apart-hotel, in the area known as Ta' Sabbat, limits of Buskett, was constructed in the 1970s and the plans to redevelop it have been in the pipeline since 1997. The case officer had then told the planning authoriy board there would be no significant impacts on two protected nature sites close by. So the board imposed a number of conditions restrict- ing height and overall volume, to take the present footprint of 1,700 sq.m down to 1,614 sq.m once re- developed, and three floors but with an increase in height of just one course. The plans also included an un- derground car park for 22 cars at basement level along with a spa, gym and indoor pool. News MATTHEW VELLA A legal spat has spilled into the courts after the author of a book on Maltese constitutional law claimed his intellectual property rights were breached. Prof. Raymond Mangion, who heads the Faculty of Laws' depart- ment of legal history, sued notary Mark A. Sammut and his Gibral- tar company Whitelocke Publica- tions, for breaching his intellectual property rights by distributing his book 'Constitutions and Legisla- tion of Malta 1914-1964' against his wishes. But in a preliminary decision, the courts liberated Sammut – author of a Panama Papers polemic that took the Labour government to task over its offshore scandal – be- cause his name does not appear in the publishing deal, even though he is the sole shareholder and di- rector of Whitelocke. The case will now continue against Whitelocke Publications, which is registered at Suite 925A, Europort, Gibraltar – a financial centre in its own right which does not tax non-resident companies that do not have a Gibraltar bank account. Non-resident compa- nies – which are of course not de- scribed as 'offshore' in Gibraltar law – are otherwise liable to just 10% tax on profits remitted to the British dependency. In April 2016 Prof. Mangion signed a publishing deal with Rus- sell Square Publishing Limited, a company in which Sammut was a 50% shareholder. Russell Square is a Malta-reg- istered company whose CEO is Prof. James J. Busuttil, an Ameri- can scholar who has the company address listed in London, where he also lectures. Sammut himself has in the past had legal works published by both Russell Square Publications, which included a foreword by Mangion himself, and Whitelocke. But in March 2017, Prof Man- gion's lawyers informed the com- pany that Mangion was terminat- ing the deal since the book was not published within two months' time as agreed in the deal. In his claim, Prof. Mangion told the court that when he sent notice of termination, Russell Square in- formed him that it had assigned the publishing rights of his book to Whitelocke Publications, a com- pany owned by Sammut. Prof. Mangion insists this was an illegal action, because Russell Square could only assign those rights to an associated company. Mangion insists that Whitelocke is not an associated company in terms of UK law, since it is not controlled by either Russell Square or its shareholders. But Sammut says that legally, he was a share- holder in both Russell Square and Whitelocke at the time Mangion's book deal was assigned to the Gi- braltar company. Soon after sending notice of termination on 24 March, 2017, Whitelocke's sales manager in- formed Prof. Mangion that the first volume of his work had al- ready been published by Russell Square and legally deposited with the British Library, while a second volume published by Whitelocke was awaiting distribution. Russell Square's Maltese law- yers also insisted that Mangion had signed for the delivery of the books back on 7 January, a fact protested by Mangion's lawyer who said this did not mean he had renounced his rights. In court, Mark Anthony Sam- mut and Whitelocke argued that Mangion's agreement with Rus- sell Square Publishing specified that the deal was subject to Eng- lish laws and that any disagree- ment would have to be resolved in the London Arbitration Centre. In his decision, Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti said Whitelocke could not be liberated from the pro- ceedings since Mangion's agree- ment had now been assigned to the company. But it said that since Sammut featured nowhere in the assignment agreement, he could not be brought into the case even if he is the director and shareholder of Whitelocke. The case continues. Panama polemicist and his Gibraltar company sued over copyright breach The home would have two levels of underground parking and the three overlying floors will include 122 rooms Five-storey old people's home proposed at Buskett L-R Mark Sammut, and Prof. Raymond Mangion