Appeal declared null and void

The Constitutional Court yesterday dismissed an appeal filed from a judgment delivered by the First Hall of the Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction.

Carmen Micallef had filed a constitutional application in 1993 against the Prime Minister, Lawrence Farrugia and the Courts Registrar. When she passed away, Joseph Micallef stepped in as applicant in May 2002.

In her application, Ms Micallef had claimed that her fundamental human rights had been violated as she had not been given a fair hearing by the Court of Appeal which, at the time, was composed of Chief Justice Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, Mr Justice Joseph A. Herrera and Mr Justice Carmel A. Agius.

Ms Micallef has claimed that the Chief Justice of the time had been intimidating in her regard and her lawyer. In addition, the Chief Justice had also shown manifest hostility towards them, she further claimed.

The Prime Minister had pleaded that Ms Micallef's application was an abuse of a constitutional remedy and that her application was frivolous and vexatious for she had various other remedies available to her in terms of ordinary law.

The First Hall of the Civil Court dismissed the application last year, deeming it frivolous and vexatious.

Mr Micallef appealed to the Constitutional Court, composed of Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti.

The court pointed out in yesterday's judgment that the Constitution clearly stipulated that no right of appeal existed when the First Hall of the Civil Court declared a constitutional application to be either frivolous or vexatious.

This, the court ruled, was a provision of public order. In this particular case the First Hall of the Civil Court had decided, in 2004, that Ms Micallef's application was both frivolous and vexatious and, therefore, the Constitutional Court concluded that the appeal from that judgment was null and void as it was prohibited by the Constitution.