The first hall of the civil court threw out a case about unjust dismissal instituted by a Fisheries Department official because, the court said, the official had not exhausted all the remedies available to him before launching his constitutional claim.

Jean-Pierre Said, a Fisheries Protection Officer, was dismissed in a disciplinary action by the Public Service Commission in 2008 in connection with a large catch of shrimps by a Spanish trawler fishing illegally in Maltese waters.

Said decided to leave the large catch in the trawler’s freezer because it was too large for the fisheries department’s. The master and crew of the Spanish trawler were arraigned in court and at the end of the case were ordered to leave the country. Which they did, with the shrimps in the trawler’s freezer.

In the meantime the director of fisheries ordered the sale of the shrimps and when it was found that the catch had been left on the trawler, disciplinary proceedings were started against Said, which led to the loss of his job.

Said started constitutional proceedings, arguing that the Fisheries Department had taken unjust measures against him. He asked the court to declare that his dismissal was unjust and breached his fundamental rights.

Mr Justice Silvio Meli said the court would not give cognitition to the case because Said had not sought other remedies available to him where his case could be treated. It found there was no breach of human rights because no constitutional articles were listed which were supposed to have been breached.