The General Workers' Union has asked a judge to abstain from hearing a case instituted by the Nationalist Party, which is claiming that the union breached the terms of a ground rent contract over the Workers Memorial Building.

The PN says that in terms of the contract, the GWU cannot transfer any part of its building - built on government-owned land - except to companies in which it has a majority stake.

But it breached that condition when it transferred part of the building to Arms Ltd.

When the hearing started this morning, lawyers for the GWU requested Madame Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima to abstain in view of her family ties with the legal firm handling the PN's brief.

Lawyer Edward Debono, counsel to the PN, is a senior partner at Fenech and Fenech, the same firm which employs two of the judge's siblings. Her brother Kenneth Grima is a senior partner while her sister Rowena Grima is a legal procurator with the firm's maritime law division. Even PN president Ann Fenech, a managing partner at the firm, was married to a cousin of the judge's sister-in-law, the GWU's lawyers argued.

Lawyer John Bonello for the GWU pointed out that all the senior partners at Fenech and Fenech were somehow related to the judge.

However, lawyer Jason Azzopardi rebutted that this line of reasoning was making a mockery of the notion of impartiality and warned against the risk of forum shopping. Moreover, even European case-law laid down clear and specific instances which merited the abstention of a judge. These involved scenarios where the judge had a conflict of interest on the basis of personal belief or attitude, or on account of his previous involvement in the case as a practising lawyer.

Lawyer Daniel Buttigieg representing Fenech and Fenech also remarked that the firm had handled various cases before Madame Justice Padovani Grima, winning some and losing others. The GWU's lawyers were casting a shadow upon the court.