Civil lawsuit took 33 years to conclude
The government was yesterday ordered to pay €2,000 (Lm858.36) in compensation for a human rights violation when it resulted that a civil lawsuit took 33 years to conclude.
Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco delivered the judgment in a constitutional application lodged by Francis Said against the Attorney General. The Registrar of Courts was later called into the suit.
The court heard that in July 1973 Mr Said filed a lawsuit in the Commercial Court against Joseph Gatt. Mr Said had requested the court to find Mr Gatt liable towards him in damages for the damage done to an antique gold chain. The case was decided by the First Hall of the Civil Court in October 2003.
Mr Said then took the case to the Court of Appeal, which delivered its judgment in December 2006.
Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco said it was clear that this case, which presented no particular legal difficulty, had taken over 33 years to be decided, 30 years of which pending before the Commercial Court or the First Hall of the Civil Court.
In January 1994, the gold chain was stolen from the court safe and the Registrar of Courts was called into the suit.
Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco said there had been an exaggerated delay in the proceedings before the courts of first instance, though not before the Court of Appeal. It also resulted that there had been difficulties with the appointment of technical and legal experts in this case.
Mr Said, the court ruled, had contributed to the delay as he had not attended all sittings and had changed his lawyers. But the state was also substantially to blame for the delay which resulted in a breach of Mr Said's fundamental human right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time.
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Kevin Zammit
Jun 20th 2008, 08:15
I can live with a broken road ... I would hate it ... but I can live with it. Can we live with a broken justice system?
Suggestion ... stop voting for lawyers ...
Andrew Gatt
Jun 19th 2008, 17:58
Well said, all........want more cases in point? My firm has 2 pending cases. Both are awaiting judgement ie: after 9 YEARS, all evidence has been presented and heard, all submissions etc. made. We have been up and down to the Courts for more times than I care to recall, often for nothing. Hell, our time, money, and effort would probably add up to more than the amounts we're claiming! At last, we reached the summit! The Judgement! Yahoo, we thought.............FINALLY!!!
Lo and behold, both cases STILL keep on being deferred......for judgement......2 years so far in one case, 4+ years in the other. It's the same judge, incidentally.
Charles Camilleri
Jun 19th 2008, 16:15
Yes shame indeed. This has been happening for a very long time and no Government has ever dared to do something positive to solve this problem. It is a about time that besides MEPA the Government should also restructure our law courts. These delays cause so much suffering to many people. Something should be done to remove our judiciary from the privileged position they occupy and bring them in line with the rest of us as regards accountability.Everyone who had the misfortune to enter our courts have experienced long and unnecessary delays. Why ? No seems to know the answer. Perhaps i am asking too much knowing that most of our MPs are lawyers .The irony of it all is that we have to pay for their indifference.
B Agius
Jun 19th 2008, 16:09
If this wasn't yet another example, though rather extreme, of Maltese "outcomes' by Governments of all persuasions, it would be laughable. People waiting 33 years for a civil law outcome, others waiting 33 years for their street to be covered with what they call ashphalt and so on - do you get my drift?
Odette Longo
Jun 19th 2008, 14:37
Laughable..... a colleague of mine had his sitting deferred from September 2004... to December 2005 !!! that's over a year ! Nothing's changed. I have two cases pending..... both deferred for December and January respectively. TWICE.... the file of one of the cases was "mislaid".
CATherine
Jun 19th 2008, 13:49
What a GREAT SHAME indeed ! And this case is not a first or last, I'm convinced.
Are there no adequate rules in the EU that regulate the duration of all court-cases?
Robert Cuschieri
Jun 19th 2008, 12:08
They certainly took their time . What a shame .
Andrew Gatt
Jun 19th 2008, 10:10
Yet another example of justice delayed = justice denied. The mills of justice may grind fine, but they sure grind slow. What a shame. What a disgrace. When will concrete action be taken to avoid these shocking delays in delivering justice? Years pass, people die, memories fade, evidence is lost or degrades, objects seized quietly moulder away God knows where, every day at the Law Courts is a chaos of cancelled sittings, dozens of cases scheduled for hearing at the same time..................it's an unholy mess.
Are there no standards by which the administrators of justice are measured? No accountability? No measurables? No targets? Can ANYONE take this bull by the horns, please..........