Plea in house sale case dismissed

Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi, in the First Hall of the Civil Court, has dismissed a preliminary plea by Dar tal-Providenza in a case filed against the home and against Rosario Carabott by Emanuel and Salvina Lungaro.

Plaintiffs claimed in their writ that they had undertaken to purchase a house in Marsaxlokk from a certain Marianna Carabott. The promise of sale agreement was signed in April, 2002. Carabott died two months later, and according to her will, Dar tal-Providenza was nominated as her sole heir.

The Lungaros claimed that certain of Carabott's relatives were of the opinion that she had not been of sound mind when she had drawn up her will. They requested the court to establish who Carabott's heirs were and to condemn the heirs to sell to plaintiffs the house at Marsaxlokk.

Dar tal-Providenza submitted, by way of a preliminary plea, that the action filed against it was null and void as the residential home did not have a separate judicial personality but fell under the authority of the Archbishop. Consequently, the home submitted that the Archbishop's representative ought to have been sued.

However, Mr Justice Azzopardi noted in his partial judgment that the 1995 amendments to the law governing procedure stipulated that when a writ was filed against a body that had a separate and distinct personality, it was sufficient for the plaintiff to mention only the name of such a body. The definition of what constituted a person at law had also been broadened by the same amendments.

The court noted that although the home had submitted that it had no legal personality, this contrasted with the manner in which the home had been nominated as heir by the late Marianna Carabott.

The court therefore dismissed the preliminary plea and ordered that the case continue to be heard.