Report to police leads to judicial protest

In a judicial protest filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, the landlord of a clinic in Sliema formally held his tenant's heirs liable in damages following a report made by the latter to the police.

Adrian Busietta claimed that he had leased a clinic in Sliema to dentist Godfrey Ellul Sullivan.

When the dentist died, Busietta had requested his heirs to pay him the arrears in rent for the clinic but no payment was forthcoming. Busietta had then appointed Paul Caruana as his mandatory, and had introduced him to the dentist's widow.

Caruana was appointed for the specific task of collecting the arrears in rent and to regain the keys of the dental clinic.

However, Theresa Ellul Sullivan, Timothy Ellul Sullivan and Bernadette Cachia, the widow and children of the late Godfrey Ellul Sullivan, had filed a report with the police claiming that Busietta and Caruana had stolen a number of items from the Sliema clinic.

Busietta categorically denied these allegations and claimed that he had not gone to the clinic, nor had he instructed any person to take the law into his own hands and enter the property.

The Ellul Sullivan family, claimed Busietta, were well aware of this, but had insisted that criminal action be filed against him. Busietta concluded his protest by claiming that the insistence on the part of the Ellul Sullivan family was merely an attempt on their part to avoid paying the arrears in rent due.

He formally protested against them and warned that he would hold them liable in damages.

Dr Frank Cassar and Dr José Herrera signed the protest.