UK court could re-refer Orams case to ECJ
MYSTERY surrounded the outcome of the Orams property dispute yesterday - despite a verdict having already been handed down to the Orams’ London-based legal team and lawyers representing dispossessed Greek Cypriot refugee Melitis Apostolides.
Apostolides’ Nicosia-based lawyer Constantis Candounas remained tight lipped yesterday, insisting he was sworn to secrecy by a British Appeals Court judge, and that divulgence of the result before next Tuesday’s scheduled publication could place him in contempt of court.
“You will hear the verdict on Tuesday,” Candounas told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, adding that there were only three possible outcomes. “Either we win, we lose, or further questions will be sent back to [the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in] Luxemburg”.
On the Turkish Cypriot side sources said that while they were yet to receive news of the verdict from the Orams legal team in London, they had received “a strong impression” the Oramses had lost the case.
The Orams case centres on British couple Linda and David Orams who purchased and built on a plot of land in Lapithos, which belongs to Greek Cypriot Melitis Apostolides.
Since 1974 Apostolides has not been able to return to his property. However, in 2004 Apostolides secured a ruling from the Nicosia District Court ordering the Oramses to demolish the house, vacate the land and pay back rent to Apostolides. But, because the ruling was not enforceable in the north, the Orams ignored it, prompting Apostolides’ lawyers to take the case to the British High court in London in the hope that an EU law could be enacted, thereby enabling the Nicosia ruling to be enforced in the UK.
Apostolides’ lawyers’ ultimate hope was that the court could order the confiscation of the Orams’ home in Sussex to pay compensation to Apostolides. However the UK’s High Court said that because EU law remained suspended in the north, pending reunification of the island, it could not enact EU law there. The British court then turned to the ECJ in Luxemburg for clarification, which, after deliberation, backed the Nicosia court’s decision in a landmark ruling.
The ECJ’s decision was delivered in April last year and since then the ball has been back in the British court. On Tuesday it will reveal its verdict.
Apostolides’ lawyer Candounas, however, yesterday give the impression the UK court had chosen not to commit itself, and would likely be re-referring the case to Luxemburg where he said he was hopeful his client would win the case “in the end”.
“It will be very unfortunate if the case is sent back to Luxemburg. This will mean a further delay of anything between 12 and 18 months,” he added.
Candounas said there were two possible reasons why the case could be re-referred to the ECJ. One was the Orams’ lawyers’ objection to a Greek presiding judge handling the case on the grounds that he was biased in favour of the Greek Cypriot plaintiff. The other was an issue brought up, not by the Orams’ lawyers but by the EU Commission, which claimed that international public policy would possibly be violated if the court ruled on Cyprus property disputes. According to the EU Commission, the international community has already come to the conclusion that Cyprus’ property dispute should be resolved, not in the law courts, but through negotiations between the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.
Nevertheless, Candounas insists the case, regardless of the verdict, will have little or no impact on negotiations between the two communities. He did however observe yesterday that Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat “will be crucified” if the Orams lose the case.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/uk-co ... j/20100116
