Russian boarding school must refund parents €27,000

A boarding school for Russian-speaking children and adolescents has been ordered to refund a group of parents €27,000 after it ceased operating and closed its doors last January, leaving its students in the lurch

The school, which caters for both primary and secondary levels of education, had closed its doors in the middle of the scholastic year, just two years into that contract
The school, which caters for both primary and secondary levels of education, had closed its doors in the middle of the scholastic year, just two years into that contract

A boarding school for Russian-speaking children and adolescents has been ordered to refund a group of parents €27,000 after it ceased operating and closed its doors last January, leaving its students in the lurch.

Russians Elza Kulieva, and Victoria Makoeva and Dimitri Perfilev from Germany took Boarding School (Malta) Ltd to court after receiving a letter from the RBSM International Boarding School in January, stating that it was going to close and could no longer provide the educational services – which they had paid for, in advance. The parents had subsequently filed a judicial letter in the First Hall of the Civil Court, explaining that in 2014 they had entered into a three-year agreement with the school’s director, Evgeni Bodishtianu.

But the school, which caters for both primary and secondary levels of education, had closed its doors in the middle of the scholastic year, just two years into that contract.

The parents claimed that they were forced to send their children back to Russia as no other educational institution on the island offered the same curriculum and could accommodate new students halfway through a year.

Special summary proceedings were filed against Bodishtianu, who suggested that he could bind himself to make a repayment by the end of December this year. The parents, however, explained that they suspected this to be a timewasting manoeuvre on the director’s part. The fact that he had continued to accept payments right up to the day before closing the school gave them reason to doubt his integrity, they said, insisting on an immediate refund.

The defendant company filed a note of admission in late April.

Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff handed down judgement on 13 May, upholding the request for special summary proceedings and dispensing with the requirement of hearing submissions. He declared the defendant company to be the parents’ debtor and ordering it to refund the €26,907 it had received.