Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi, in the First Hall of the Civil Court has dismissed a writ filed by a doctor against the Chief Government Medical Officer.
Dr Paul Daniel Micallef filed his writ against the CGMO in 2001. He claimed that he had entered into a contract with the CGMO in 1992 in terms of which he was awarded a scholarship to follow a three year course in Clinical Psychology at Birmingham University, England.
After completing his course, Dr Micallef had bound himself to work for the Malta Government for five years. The contract also stipulated that plaintiff might be required to refund all or part of the expenses incurred for his scholarship if, among other conditions, he failed to serve the government.
Dr Micallef had granted a general hypothec in favour of the government in the sum of Lm23,364 as guarantee of his contractual obligations.
In his writ plaintiff claimed that after completing his course he had not been offered adequate employment with the government, but had still provided services to the government. Despite this the CGMO had taken judicial action for the refund of the sum of Lm23,161 and had obtained a garnishee order against Dr Micallef.
On his part Dr Micallef filed his writ to contest the administrative action taken against him by the CGMO on the basis that the government's claims against him were unfounded as it was the CGMO who had failed to offer him suitable and adequate employment. Plaintiff requested the court to declare the CGMO's decision to take judicial action against him to be null and void.
The CGMO pleaded that the action filed by plaintiff was barred by lapse of time as more than six months had elapsed from the filing of the judicial action against Dr Micallef and his subsequent writ.
Mr Justice Azzopardi pointed out that the law provided for a six month limit within which an action such as that filed by plaintiff was to be submitted before the courts.
In its judgment the court noted that the garnishee order had been issued against Dr Micallef in May, 2001 and that the latter had filed his writ against the CGMO in September that year. The writ had therefore been filed within less than six months from the garnishee order.
However, the CGMO submitted that the six month period had commenced to run from when Dr Micallef was served with a judicial letter calling upon him to pay the sum claimed by the government. The judicial letter had been served upon Dr Micallef in 1999.
Mr Justice Azzopardi agreed with the CGMO's submission and declared that it was backed by case law. The six month period to attack the validity of an administrative decision was a peremptory time limit and as such could not be interrupted or suspended.
The court concluded its judgment by dismissing Dr Micallef's writ.