Vintage truck's restorer ordered to give up prized possession

A court has ordered a man who had painstakingly restored a dilapidated Bedford Perkins truck that came into his possession to return it to its original owners.

The truck was originally the property of Angelo Grech, the only deliveryman for Canada Dry products in Gozo in decades past.

Carmel Xuereb had come into possession of the truck in 2008 when the owners of the garage in which it was parked had asked him to tow the vehicle out of their property and dispose of it as he pleased, as they wanted to clear out the garage.

In the court of Magistrates in Gozo, Xuereb had told Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri that the truck had been abandoned to rot, having been allowed to reach a terminal state of disrepair.

The roof of the garage had also partially collapsed onto the vehicle, smashing the truck's wooden cabin. Xuereb had toiled for many hours and incurred costs of some €8,000 to restore the truck to its original condition.

The plaintiff, Agnese Grech who lives in New York, had declared that was her late husband's. Angelo Grech was known throughout Gozo as ' tal-Canada Dry' as he had been the only delivery man for the drinks brand for many years, before he emigrated to America.

The vintage truck, emblazoned with the Canada Dry logo had been stored in the same garage since 1982.

However, in 2005, the owners of the garage had applied for an eviction order against Angelo Grech, who shortly afterwards was diagnosed with cancer.

Grech had died in 2008, and his widow had not shown any interest in the truck at all, until one day in 2011 her son-in-law Mario Muscat, a car enthusiast, informed her that the Bedford was being advertised for sale on e-Bay at an asking price of £9,000. The seller stated that he was not in possession of the logbook as the former owner had died.

Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri, observed that although the plaintiff and her husband had abandoned the truck for decades and let it fall into disrepair, there was no evidence to show that they had renounced ownership of the vehicle.

The court, held that the defendant must have known that the truck was still registered in the name of Angelo Grech, pointing to the e-bay description as evidence of this.

In fact Xuereb had attempted to convince the plaintiff 's daughter, who lived in Gozo, to sign documents transferring ownership but she had refused.

The magistrate pointed out that it was the only vehicle of its type in Gozo and the nickname 'Tal-Canada Dry' was well known enough for Xuereb to have been aware of the identity of the truck's owner.

The court, unconvinced by the defendant's claim of having bought the truck from a scrapyard, ruled that the Xuereb had acted in bad faith and had no legal claim of ownership. Xuereb was ordered to return the truck to the plaintiff without any right to be reimbursed for the expenses he incurred in the vehicle's restoration.