The Royal Malta Yacht Club has been ordered by a court to vacate premises used as a lido in Ta' Xbiex after a court found it had no legal title over it.

The decision was taken in a case filed by the Malta Playing Fields Association.

The association explained that it was given a 49-year emphyteusis over the 672sq/m site by the government in 2002.

In June 2008 the land was expropriated by the government and was included in a site handed to the yacht club in September 2009.

Meanwhile, the association contested the validity of the expropriation order and won its case in court in October 2015. The court had ruled that the expropriation was not necessary in the public interest.

The Royal Malta Yacht Club insisted it had legal title over the property, which it had acquired in good faith under a legally valid contract. It argued that the association could not ask the court to order its eviction. If anything, the association could only request damages from whoever could have caused it such damages. The club reserved the right to itself sue the Lands Authority and Sport Malta for damages if it could not enjoy the investment of thousands of euro it had made on the property.

In its considerations, the court said that in view of the Appeal Court's decision in 2015 declaring the expropriation of the site as null, it could not declare that the club had a valid title over the property. To do so would contradict the previous court decision that the expropriation was illegal.

The court therefore upheld the Playing Field Association's pleas and declared that the Royal Malta Yacht Club had no title over the property.

In ordering the eviction from the property, the court said it reserved the right of the association for separate proceedings for payment of damages for the occupation of the site.