Appeals court cuts damages award by over €25,000

The Court of Appeal decided that the developers of the Portomaso Complex should pay just under €7,000 to the owner of a nearby house rather than over €32,000 as another court had decided.

The judgment follows an appeal filed by the developer, Spinola Development Co. Ltd (SDC), from a judgment by the First Hall of the Civil Court which had ordered it to pay over €32,600 damages to Joanna Briffa, the owner of an adjacent house in St Julians, who claimed that she had suffered structural damages and loss of rental income as a result of the development of the Portomaso complex.

In its appeal, SDC said that the first court had completely ignored the fact that Ms Briffa had not produced any evidence of loss of income, nor had she proven that the company was responsible for the damages she had sustained.

Moreover, the fact that it had carried out development works did not render it liable for Ms Briffa's alleged loss of income. SDC added that it had always abided by the building regulations imposed upon it and had not exceeded the sound level when it carried out blasting works.

The Court of Appeal noted that the first court had concluded that the direct cause of the damages suffered by Ms Briffa was construction works by the company. Although the company claimed it could not be held liable in damages because it had always abided by building regulations, SDC was still liable for the damage that occurred through its fault.

However, the Court of Appeal concluded that the damages awarded to Ms Briffa were exaggerated. Ms Briffa, the court ruled, was responsible for half the damages she had sustained as she had not taken action to lease out her property during this period.

The Court of Appeal therefore found in favour of SDC and reduced the damages payable to Ms Briffa for loss of rental income to €6,988.