Russian boarding school ordered to refund €58,000 to parents after abruptly shutting down

A boarding school for Russian-speaking children and adolescents has been ordered to refund over €58,0000 that had been paid in advance by the mother of a student, shortly before the school abruptly announced it would be closing down.

Iulia Samunina filed her claim against RBSM Boarding School in July this year, after having paid the exorbitant tuition fee in advance, last year, at the school's request.

In January, Samunina and all the other parents of the school's students had received a letter from the school, informing them that the school would be closing down and would be unable to provide educational services to their children. Several requests for an explanation went unanswered, but eventually Samunina was informed that the school was unable to continue to operate due to financial problems.

The school director had sent a letter to the woman on 12 January, acknowledging the €58,085 debt and proposed that it give until December this year to repay.

Samunina's lawyer Andrew Grima had filed a judicial letter asking the court to proceed by special summary proceedings, on the grounds that the school had admitted the debt.

Also noting that the debt was privileged at law, Madame Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima held that Samunina's request was justified and declared Boarding School (Malta) Ltd to be Samunina's debtors, the court ordering the company to refund the money with immediate effect.

The judgement comes seven months after Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff ordered the school to refund a group of parents €27,000 in near-identical proceedings in May.