   PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS)     [ CAP. 111.       1
CHAPTER 111
PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY 
PROVISIONS) ORDINANCE
To make provision as respects certain personal injuries sustained
during the period of the present emergency.
(7th August, 1941) *
Enacted by ORDINANCE IX of 1941, as amended by Ordinances: X and
XVII of 1942; Act XVI of 1952; Ordinance XXV of 1962; Legal Notice 46 of
1965; and Acts: LVIII of 1974, XLV of 1975, XIII of 1983 and VIII of 1990.
Short title.
(Emergency Provisions) Ordinance.
Interpretation. 
Amended by: 
XVI.1952.2; 
L.N. 46 of 1965; 
LVIII. 1974.68.
2. (1) In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise
requires-
"civil defence organization" means any organization which is
declared by a scheme to be a civil defence organization for the
purpose of this Ordinance and the scheme;
"civil defence worker", in relation to any injury, means a person
certified by a responsible officer of a civil defence organization to
have been a member of that organization at the time when the
injury was sustained;
"gainfully occupied person" means a person who is engaged in
any trade, business, profession, office, employment or vocation and
is wholly or substantially dependent thereon for a livelihood, or a
person who though temporarily unemployed, is normally so
engaged and dependent;
"period of the present emergency" means the period beginning
on the third day of September, 1939, and ending with such date as
the President of Malta may proclaim to be the end of such
emergency;
"scheme" means a scheme under this Ordinance; 
"war injury" means physical injuries -
( a ) caused by - 
(i) the discharge of any missile (including liquids
and gas); or 
(ii) the use of any weapon, explosive or other
noxious thing; or
(iii) the doing of any other injurious act;
either by the enemy or in combating the enemy or in
* See  Gov. Not. No. 362 of 7th August, 1941.
This Ordinance, although relating to matters arising out of the Second World War has
been included in this Revised Edition as it is still applicable to a number of
beneficiaries. However, as the Ordinance relates in many instances to events of a
relatively distant past, references to certain statutes have been maintained even though
these have been repealed.
  2       CAP. 111. ]        PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS)   
repelling an imagined attack by the enemy or in the
implementation of such precautionary or preparatory
measures as are indicated in paragraph ( c ) of
subsection (2) of section 2 of the War Damage
Ordinance, (Ordinance III of 1943) * ;
    or 
( b ) caused by the impact on any person or property of any
enemy aircraft, or any aircraft belonging to, or held by
any person on behalf of or for the benefit of, the
British Crown or any power allied to it, or any part of,
or anything dropped from, any such aircraft;
"war service injury", in relation to a civil defence worker, means
any physical injury which the Committee certifies to have been
shown to its satisfaction to have arisen out of and in the course of
the performance of his duties as a member of the civil defence
organization to which he belonged at the time when the injury was
sustained and to have been either a war injury or an injury arising
directly or indirectly from conditions caused by an enemy air raid
or other attack and sustained in the performance of work in which
the risk of injury was materially increased by the necessity to
perform it either during or immediately after an enemy air raid or
other attack.
(2) No certificate shall be given by the Committee in relation to
the definition of "war service injury" in the foregoing subsection,
unless they have been furnished with a report about the injury in
question by a responsible officer of the civil defence organization
of which the worker concerned was a member at the time when the
injury was sustained and any such certificate may be revoked by
the Committee at any time on new facts being brought to their
notice.
Allowances and 
pensions in respect 
of certain war 
injuries and war 
service injuries. 
Amended by: 
XXV.1962.3; 
L.N. 46 of 1965; 
LVIII. 1974.68.
3. (1) The President of Malta may, with the approval by
resolution of the House of Representatives, make a scheme in
accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance, providing for the
making of payments out of the Consolidated Fund in respect of the
following injuries sustained during the period of the present
emergency, namely - 
( a ) war injuries sustained by gainfully occupied persons
(with such exceptions, if any, as may be specified in
the scheme) and by persons of such other classes as
may be so specified; and
( b ) war service injuries sustained by civil defence
workers. 
(2) Any such scheme may be made to take effect from a date
not earlier than two months before the commencement of this
Ordinance and such date is herein referred to as the date of
commencement of the scheme.
(3) In respect of any injury, described in subsection (1) of this
*This Ordinance was repealed by Act XXIX of 1980.
   PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS)     [ CAP. 111.       3
section a scheme may authorize the Committee to be appointed
under that scheme, in such circumstances and subject to such
conditions as may be specified in the scheme to make the following
payments to or in respect of the person injured, namely - 
( a ) payments by way of allowance (hereafter in this
Ordinance referred to as "injury allowances"), which
shall be payable only so long as the person injured is
incapacitated for work by the injury and has not
received any such payment as is mentioned in the next
following paragraph; and
( b ) payments by way of pension or allowance or grant,
which shall be payable only where the injury causes
serious and prolonged disablement or death.
(4) A scheme may authorize the making of payments in respect
of injuries sustained before the date of commencement of the
scheme, provided that, except as allowed by subsection (5) of this
section no payment shall be made in respect of any period prior to
that date.
(5) In the case of an injury sustained before the date of
commencement of a scheme, if, as a result of that injury any person
has died or has suffered serious and prolonged disablement
continuing after the date of commencement of a scheme the scheme
may authorize the Committee to make, in its discretion, a payment
not exceeding half the amount which would have been payable
under the scheme during the period from the date of the injury to
the date of commencement of the scheme had the scheme been in
operation during that period:
  Provided that no such payment shall be made unless it is shown
to the satisfaction of the Committee that the person to or for whose
benefit the payment may be made has suffered serious financial
hardship as a result of the injury and continues to suffer such
hardship after the commencement of the scheme.
(6) A scheme may empower the President of Malta to make
regulations for giving effect to the purposes of the scheme.
(7) Any decision of the Committee set up under the scheme as
to the making, refusal or amount, or as to the continuance or
discontinuance, of a payment under a scheme may be varied by a
subsequent decision of the same Committee, but save in so far as it
is so varied shall be final and conclusive.
Procedure as to 
schemes.  Amended 
by: XXV.1962.3: 
L.N. 46 of 1965; 
LVIII. 1974.68. 
Substituted by: 
XLV. 1975.2.
4. A scheme may be amended or revoked by regulations made
by the Minister responsible for finance.
Relief from 
liability to pay 
compensation or 
damages.  Amended 
by: X.1942.2; 
XVII. 1942.2.
5. (1) In the case of injuries in respect of which a payment
may be made under a scheme, there shall not be payable, either to
the person injured or to any other person, any compensation or
damages which, apart from the provisions of this subsection -
( a ) would be payable under the Workmen’s Compen-
  4       CAP. 111. ]        PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS)   
sation Ordinance, 1934, (Ordinance XXVIII of 1934) * ;
or
( b ) would, whether by virtue of any enactment, by virtue
of any contract, or at common law, be payable- 
(i) in the case of a war injury, by any person; or 
(ii) in the case of a war service injury sustained by a
civil defence worker, by the employer of the
worker, by any person who has any
responsibility in connection with his duties as a
worker or by any other civil defence worker;
on the ground that the injury in question was attributable to some
negligence, nuisance or breach of duty for which the person by
whom the compensation or damages would be payable is
responsible.
(2) Where in respect of a war injury or a war service injury,
whether the result thereof is death or disablement,
( a ) a person becomes entitled to the payment of, or may be
awarded, a pension and, or alternatively, an allowance
under any of the provisions set out in subsection (3) of
this section; and
( b ) payment may also be made under a scheme,
no payment shall be made under any one of such provisions:
   Provided that where the payment that, but for this subsection,
would have been payable under any such provision, is higher than
the payment under a scheme, there shall be transferred from the
appropriate Pension Vote or from the Police Reward and Relief
Fund or from the Police Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund, as the case
may be, to the scheme vote a sum equal to the difference between
the first-mentioned and the last-mentioned payment, and thereupon
payment under the scheme shall be increased by that sum.
(3) The provisions referred to in subsection (2) of this section
are the following, that is to say -
Cap. 93. ( a ) the Pensions Ordinance;
( b ) (in so far as they are applicable to officers who, in
virtue of section 20 of the Pensions Ordinance, have so
elected) the Pensions Act, 1926, and Ordinance IX of
1885;
( c ) the Regulations regarding the Police Reward and
Relief Fund and the Police Widows’ and Orphans’
Pensions Fund.
(4) The failure to give a notice or make a claim or commence
proceedings within the time required by any enactment shall not be
a bar to the maintenance of proceedings in respect of any personal
injury, if -
*This Ordinance was included in the 1942 Revised Edition of the Laws of Malta as
Chapter 128; which chapter was subsequently repealed by Act VI of 1956.
   PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS)     [ CAP. 111.       5
( a ) an application for a payment under a scheme, or under
any other enactment or instrument, has been duly made
to the Committee in respect of the injury; and
( b ) the court or Board before which the proceedings are
brought is satisfied that the said application was made
in the reasonable belief that the injury was such that a
payment could be made under the scheme or that other
enactment or instrument, as the case may be; and
( c ) the Committee certifies that the application was
rejected, or that payments made in pursuance of the
application were discontinued, on the ground that the
injury was not such an injury; and
( d ) the proceedings are commenced within one month
from the date of the said certificate of the Committee.
Reduction of sick 
pay by amount of 
allowances.
6. Where an employee -
(i) is in receipt of an injury allowance under a
scheme during a period for which he is
incapacitated for work; and
(ii) would, but for the provisions of this section, be
entitled to receive a sum from his employer by
way of wages or other emoluments in respect of
that period;
the employer shall be under no obligation to pay to him in respect
of that period an amount greater than the amount by which the said
sum exceeds that allowance.
Information as to 
earnings. 
Amended by: 
XIII. 1983.5; 
VIII. 1990.3.
7. (1) Where it is necessary, in order to determine the amount
of any payment to be awarded under a scheme in respect of any
injury, to ascertain the earnings of the person injured in respect of
any period before he sustained the injury, the Committee may by
notice in writing require -
(i) any person who was an employer of the injured
person during that period; and
(ii) any other person having any knowledge with
respect to the financial circumstances of the
injured person during that period;
to furnish in accordance with the notice any information in his
possession relating to those earnings or circumstances, and to
produce to any person specified in the notice any wage books,
records or other documents in his possession containing any entries
with respect to those earnings.
  6       CAP. 111. ]        PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS)   
Cap. 9.
(2) If any person fails to comply with the requirements of any
such notice he shall be liable on conviction by a Court of
Magistrates to a fine of not less than two liri and not more than five
liri, but if the failure of compliance consists in purported
compliance with the notice effected by an untrue statement or an
untrue representation, knowingly or recklessly made, or by the
production of any document which is false in a material particular
or calculated to deceive, then the fine shall be of not less than ten
liri and of not more than twenty liri or the offence shall be punished
by such heavier punishment as may be inflicted under the Criminal
Code.
Penalty for false 
statements.
Cap.9.
8. Any person who, for the purpose of obtaining a payment
under a scheme, either for himself or for any other person,
knowingly makes any untrue statement or untrue representation,
shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding three months or to such heavier punishment as he
may be liable to under the Criminal Code.
Assignments, etc., 
to be void.
9. Any assignment of or charge on, and any agreement to
assign or charge, any payment awarded or to be awarded under a
scheme shall be void, and any such payment shall not be subject to
a garnishee order, nor, on the bankruptcy of any person to whom
such a payment will have been awarded, shall such payment pass to
the curator or to the curators.
Closing time for 
applications. 
Added by: 
XLV. 1975.3.
10. No payment may be made under this Ordinance or under
any scheme made thereunder unless an application therefor has
been made before the 15th October, 1975.
