Court dismisses claim of exaggerated power bill

Mr Justice Tonio Mallia in the First Hall of the Civil Court yesterday dismissed a writ filed by Burlington Holdings Ltd against Water Services Corporation and Enemalta Corporation.

The company had asked the court to declare that the utilities' claim for payment of over Lm28,000 for electricity consumption over four months in 1992 was unfounded.

Burlington Holdings Ltd said the utilities were claiming Lm28,071.11 for electricity consumption for the period between May and September 1992 at the Burlington Complex, St Julian's, owned by the company. This amount could not possibly be due for the electricity meter had been tampered with.

Mr Justice Mallia noted that when the company had filed its complaint after receiving the bill and investigation had been carried out, Enemalta had established that the meter could be tampered with.

When the meter, which was subsequently replaced, was examined, it resulted that it worked slowly and registered less electricity consumption than had actually been utilised.

The court added that although the bills for this particular meter were usually in the region of between Lm300 and Lm800, on one occasion the bill for the four-month period in question amounted to Lm28,071.

However, one had also to note that the meter did not serve for one closed area but also for the common parts of the complex. Use of the meter by one of the residents could not therefore be excluded but the court could not exclude the possibility that the company was using the meter to supply electricity to other premises according to its needs.

Mr Justice Mallia declared that the onus of proof rested on the consumer who had to show that the meter reading was exaggerated and it was not up to Enemalta to justify the recorded reading.

The meter was under the control of the consumer who ought to know what use was being made of it.

The court therefore dismissed the company's claims on the grounds that it was not satisfied that it had proven that the electricity consumption was too high.