Ordered to pay Lm1,200 for missing jewellery

A woman who failed to return jewellery entrusted to her by her friend was ordered by the Small Claims Tribunal to pay Lm1,200 in damages.

The judgment was delivered in the case filed by Fallon Grech Blackman against Lara Filletti.

Plaintiff claimed that on June 6, 2001 Filletti, accompanied by her three-year-old daughter and another friend had gone out together. Filletti had dropped Grech Blackman off at her house in Balzan so that she could collect her clothes. When plaintiff came back to the car she was carrying a diamond pendant and a gold chain in her hands.

At that moment, Filletti's daughter had asked to use the lavatory in Grech Blackman's house and the latter claimed that she had given the jewellery to Filletti while she accompanied the little girl.

According to Grech Blackman, when she had asked Filletti for the jewellery, defendant had claimed that Grech Blackman had placed the pendant and chain on the car dashboard beneath the car radio.

The jewellery was never found and Filletti kept assuring Grech Blackman that she would look for the jewellery and that she would take the car to a mechanic to dismantle the seats and the dashboard.

Filletti later told Grech Blackman that the search had been fruitless.

On her part Filletti denied that she had ever been entrusted with the jewellery but claimed that Grech Blackman had only noted that the jewellery was missing many hours later.

After hearing the evidence produced the tribunal concluded that it was convinced that Grech Blackman had entrusted the jewellery to Filletti and that defendant was therefore bound to return the pendant and chain to plaintiff or reimburse her the value of the jewellery.

Lawyer Audrey Demicoli, chairing the tribunal, ordered Filletti to pay Grech Blackman Lm1,200.