Scientist awarded €533,000 for works on stalled regeneration project

Updated at 11.25am

A scientist has won €533,000 in a court battle with Indis over unpaid fees for works on a stalled Ħal Luqa landfill regeneration project.

Robert Cortis sued Indis, an agency which administers government-owned land, to recover the fees owed to him after the company tried to shift the payment obligations for the fees onto private consortia working on the tender. 

Indis argued that, under the project’s tendering process, the private consortia should have funded the study upfront and then sought reimbursement from Indis once the project progressed. 

Indis CEO Jean Pierre Attard told a court that the project had been stalled by unresolved ownership issues, including land occupied by third parties. He detailed how a company occupying the land had objected to the development and that the environmental permit had expired, meaning a fresh application would be needed if the project were revived. 

Indis could not move ahead until these problems were resolved, according to Attard’s testimony. 

Judge Audrey Demicoli accepted that the tender arrangements initially made sense when the project was still active.

The judge ruled that the agreement no longer provided a fair or workable solution given the prolonged suspension of the project and the uncertainty hanging over its future. 

Cortis, the judge ruled, should not be left waiting indefinitely for payment simply because the wider project had stalled.

The court dismissed arguments that the consortia alone should bear liability for the fees. 

It held that Indis was the entity ultimately answerable for the debt, as it had benefited from the report drawn up by Cortis and had not disputed that the works he was engaged for were properly carried out. 

The judge noted that the company had benefited from the report and had not disputed that the work itself was properly carried out.

In a separate judgement, Cortis was €31,093 for separate works carried out on the same project.