An appeal filed by the Federation of Hunters, Trappers and Conservationists (FKNK) has been declared to be null and void by the Court of Appeal on the grounds that it lacked the essential elements required at law.

Mr Justice Philip Sciberras delivered this judgment following a writ for libel damages filed by the FKNK against the Institute of Maltese Journalists.

The FKNK had claimed before the Magistrates Court that it had been libeled by an article published in "The Times" in March 2007.

But the first court had ruled that an organization, such as the FKNK, did not have a judicial interest to move such a suit for damages. Members of an organization which felt that it had been libelled could not sue for libel on behalf of the organization. Such members could, however, file individual libel actions.

The FKNK then appealed to the Court of Appeal in its inferior jurisdiction.

On appeal the Institute of Maltese Journalists pleaded that the application of appeal was null and void because it did not contain an explicit request for the revocation or change of the judgement appealed from.

Mr Justice Sciberras ruled that no correction to the appeal application could take place. This case did not involve a simple error in the wording of the appeal, but it involved a complete omission of the object of the appeal. No remedy was therefore possible and the appeal was declared to be null and void.

The court added that this could be the result of the wrong practice of transposing the written submissions filed before the first court into an application of appeal. Such a practice, said the court, implied a lack of respect towards the first court.