Hotel sues Turkish construction company TACA over unpaid €250,000 tab

A Marsascala hotel has filed judicial proceedings against Turkish construction company TACA over an unpaid €250,000 bill

22 July 2020, 7:27am
by Matthew Agius

2 min read

Last month MaltaToday reported that a group of 80 Turkish workers had not been paid by TACA for over five months

A Marsascala hotel has filed judicial proceedings against Turkish construction company TACA over an unpaid €250,000 bill for lodging and food that it provided for its workers.

TACA is one of a number of international construction companies that submitted a bid for the redevelopment of the Fortina Hotel in Sliema and the DB Group’s City Centre project on the former ITS site in St Julian’s.

Earlier last year, the company hit the headlines for allegedly accommodating their Turkish workers in prefabricated buildings constructed in a repurposed quarry. Since then, they moved their workforce accommodation to the Cerviola Hotel in Marsascala.

Last month MaltaToday reported that a group of 80 Turkish workers had not been paid by TACA for over five months.

A few weeks after reportedly failing to pay its workers, TACA was hit with a lawsuit by Cerviola Hotel Limited after allegedly also failing to pay for food and accommodation.

In a sworn application before the First Hall of the Civil Court, Cerviola’s Managing Director Alexio Borg, claimed that after failing to settle some 22 unpaid invoices, TACA Insaat Ve Ticaret A.S. was a debtor to Cerviola to the tune of €250,289 besides legal interest. The sum represented lodging, food, transport and related services provided by the hotel.

Borg said that Cerviola had sent a statement of dues to TACA which the Turkish company had accepted and agreed was due. But TACA had failed to settle the bill, despite several requests for payment being sent to it. TACA had explained that it had found itself in difficulties with its clients, Borg said.

“I had made several requests for payment of the amounts due, even through a lawyer, but despite TACA not contesting this sum as being due, it did not pay,” Borg’s sworn declaration reads.

Claiming the debt is certain, liquid and due, and that there was no defence to the action, the plaintiff asked the court to decide the case summarily.

Lawyers Pawlu Lia and Phyllis Aquilina signed the application.

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Matthew Agius is Senior Reporter on Law and Court Affairs at MaltaToday. He is also a Leg...