Strickland heirs insist on full control of Lija house

The exasperation in the voice of Mabel Strickland’s universal heir was palpable as he described the subtle intimidation with which he claims the foundation Ms Strickland herself had set up, was using in its attempts to evict him.

Robert and Deirdre Hornyold-Strickland testified on Friday before Mr Justice Silvio Meli, as the case filed against the executors of Mabel Strickland's will over the ownership of Villa Parisio plods ponderously on.

Deirdre Hornyold-Strickland insisted that the villa was her home, but that the property belonged to the foundation. The Strickland Foundation, owners of Allied Newspapers, could easily transfer its seat to anywhere in Malta, she explained, and her husband had filed the case after allegedly suffering “years of constant harassment” at its hands.

The great nephew of the late Miss Strickland, erstwhile newspaper owner and politician, Robert Hornyold-Strickland detailed other instances of subtle and not-so-subtle intimidation. On one occasion, his wife found Foundation officials removing furniture from the drawing room, he claimed, and the couple’s privacy has been invaded by the Foundation’s installation of CCTV cameras both inside and outside the property.

To protests from the plaintiff’s counsel, the defendants’ lawyer Richard Camilleri asked Robert Hornyold Strickland whether he had inherited a considerable number of other properties from his great-aunt; “about eight properties in Lija, 10 properties in Valletta, something like that.” The witness replied that it was “possibly as many as that,” adding that “many had been sold to pay for death duties [inheritance tax].”

The judge asked the lawyer where his line of questioning was leading to. Camilleri replied: “because they give the impression that they were left penniless.” The couple deny implying this, however.

“These are properties which I had inherited from my aunt. 75% of the value of all the properties owned by my Aunt were inherited by the Foundation [Villa Parisio].  Of the remaining 25% which I did inherit, I immediately had to sell most of them to pay the death duties. The number of properties I was left with after paying the dues was quite small.”

Asked if he was left shares in Xara Palace Hotel Company Ltd, which owns the eponymous hotel, he replied that he had and that these shares had also been sold to pay the death duties.

“But had you inherited Villa Parisio, you would have had to pay death duties on that too, would you not?” began Camilleri, at which point the court intervened, pointing out that he could not argue that they were doing him a favour.

Deirdre Hornyold-Strickland explained that she had understood that the rights of use and habitation were in relation to living with her husband and family, but these rights had effectively been limited to one bathroom, the bedrooms and the study by the testamentary executors. “I have been told it’s not my home by members of the foundation, including Dr Mario de Marco,” she said.

“It is disingenuous in the extreme to say that we should be corralled into one bedroom and bathroom... not bathrooms with an ‘s’ – I have had a handwriting expert examine the will. There is no doubt whatsoever that the plural is used. To predicate the whole case on one bathroom is nothing but fatuous, malicious and menacing of the family.”

She informed the court that she had camera footage of “an altercation where I was told that it was not my home and that I was not in a guest room.”

Camilleri asked whether the entire villa was hers. “A home includes a dining room, a hall and a kitchen... and you tried to reduce me to a kitchenette, which is disgusting,” she replied. In her opinion, the areas not intended for the heir’s habitation were “somewhere outside the villa.”

The witness was asked whether she was aware of a clause in the will that said that the use and habitation should in no way interfere with the work of the foundation. She said she was but was also aware that “a right to a home prevails over any business interest.”

“Let’s be honest here, the foundation is controlled by Mario de Marco, who refuses to relocate the foundation elsewhere – which is very easily done. I have my doubts whether Mabel Strickland knew what the rights of use and habitation meant. The will was badly drafted by Guido de Marco. You can’t have a dichotomy in the will where you have a family residing in the villa at the same time as the Foundation. If the foundation relocated there would be no problem whatsoever.”