A family whose court cases were not decided in 40 years was awarded €12,000 in compensation.

Joseph, Carmel, Miriam, Paul, William, Speranza and Philip Gatt and Alexandra Caruana filed their constitutional application against the Attorney General.

The family members told the court they had filed two court cases in 1970 and in 1982 and had been defendant in another court case filed in 1971. The family filed another court case in 1990. None had yet been decided and the family claimed it was entitled to compensation.

They complained about the delays and the fact that the court file in one of the cases had been lost.

In his judgement, Mr Justice Anthony Ellul ruled there was no doubt that the cases had taken far too long to be decided.

There were numerous factors which had contributed to the delay, namely the fact that experts had to be appointed to assist the court, delays in holding court sittings, years in which no evidence was produced by the parties and delays in paying the court experts.

The Gatt family had also contributed to the delays and had failed to attend a number of court sittings. However, the courts were bound to ensure that proceedings were expedited.

Mr Justice Ellul added that it was easy for any outsider to the legal system to criticise the manner in which court proceedings were conducted. However, it was a reality that each judge had a large number of pending court cases to decide upon. This was not an excuse but a request for more resources to be made available to the judiciary.

However, he ruled that the family's fundamental human right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time had been violated.