TSI rules against gov’t on 102-year-old land dispute, compensation set at over MOP100 million

The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has ruled on a land dispute originating from 1918 between the Macau government and the owners of a land plot with a total area of 24,498 square meters located in Taipa Island.
In the ruling, the judges of the TSI sentenced the government to pay compensation totaling around 100 million patacas.
The case began in 1918 when the then-Portuguese government of Macau expropriated part of the land plot located in the vicinity of Estrada Almirante Magalhães Correia, Estrada da Ponta da Cabrita and Avenida Padre Tomás Pereira, behind where the Edifício do Lago is currently located.
According to a statement from the Office of the President of the Courts of Final Appeal and Second Instance, the land was expropriated to build a shooting range, but the action was never officially registered.
Many years later, in 1994 the government used another part of the same land plot to build the access roads to the Amizade Bridge. In 1999, the former Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, which is now known as the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM), built an old tire depot on another portion of the land plot.
Since the expropriation was never registered, the heirs of the original landowners claimed ownership of the plot. As the government refused the reclamation, they filed a court case against the Macau authorities.
After reaching the TSI due to both parties appealing the first decision of the Administrative Court, the judges analyzed the case and ruled in favor of the heirs. They determined that the Macau government and the IAM should pay compensation for the unlawful use of the land over a long period.
Besides the financial compensation of over MOP100 million, the government was also sentenced to return a land piece of an area of 20,263 square meters which remains available.
The Public Prosecutions Office, which was representing the Macau SAR, has already filed an appeal with the Court of Final Appeal.