A libel judgment delivered by the First Hall of the Civil Court in 2001 was yesterday overturned by the Court of Appeal on the ground that the judgment ought not to have been delivered at that stage of the proceedings.
Yesterday's judgment was handed down by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph F. Filletti following an appeal by Felix Agius.
The court heard that on February 14, 2001 the First Hall of the Civil Court had upheld a libel suit filed by Joseph Saliba against Agius, and that defendant had been ordered by the court to pay plaintiff Lm500 in libel damages.
Agius appealed on a procedural point.
He claimed that he had requested the first court to allow him to produce two witnesses whose names were not included in the court records.
Plaintiff Saliba had not objected to this request, and the first court had upheld Agius' request and had approved the summons for the two witnesses to testify.
However, in the meantime, the first court had put the case off for judgment and had delivered judgment without giving Agius the opportunity to present his two witnesses.
In yesterday's judgment the Court of Appeal noted that on November 3, 2000 the first court had put the case off for December 11 of the same year for defendant Agius to produce his evidence.
On November 23, 2000 Agius had filed an application requesting the production of two witnesses.
On December 11, 2000 only Saliba appeared before the first court, and the case was put off for judgment for February 14, 2001.
It was obvious, said the Court of Appeal, that the First Hall of the Civil Court had forgotten that Agius' application to produce the two witnesses was still pending before it.
In fact, on January 8, 2001, the first court upheld Agius' request for the production of the two witnesses, and this necessarily implied, said the Court of Appeal, that the first court was not going to deliver judgment on February 14.
The Court of Appeal concluded that it appeared that, on February 14, 2001, the first court had completely forgotten its previous decrees and proceeded to deliver judgment in this case and condemned Agius to pay Lm500 to Saliba in libel damages.
In conclusion the Court of Appeal overturned the judgment appealed from and ordered the records of the case to be remitted to the First Court for continuation of the case.