A decision on whether to split up the lawsuits which had been filed by Leader of the Opposition Adrian Delia against the Vitals Global Healthcare hospital takeover is to be given in March, a court has said.
On Tuesday morning, Delia’s lawyers argued that the Judge hearing the Vitals case has every right to decide whether or not to split the cases, as had been requested by the Attorney General, in the manner he wishes.
This emerged in an appeal sitting before Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi and judges Joseph R. Micallef and Tonio Mallia, in the request filed by the Prime Minister and the Attorney General that the Vitals case is split into numerous separate lawsuits.
On 19 February, PN leader Adrian Delia filed a court case in which he asked that St. Luke’s hospital, Karen Grech hospital and the Gozo general hospital, which had been given to Vitals Global Healthcare, be returned to the people and the contract, signed by the government with the anonymous owners of Vitals Global Healthcare, be declared null.
The Prime Minister and the Attorney General had appealed from the decision of Mr Justice Silvio Meli, who did not uphold their request to split up the cases as he had wanted to give one single judgment.
On 10 May 2018, the court had decreed that the case is one of great importance and should not be divided into a number of cases.
On 14 May, the AG and the Prime Minister filed an application to appeal from the decree. The court said transparency is of the utmost importance and therefore gave permission to the AG and the Prime Minister to appeal from the decision.
The AG argued that the Government Lands Act did not give a right to an MP to file such a case, if not at the beginning of a temporary emphyteutical concession.
It was also argued that this case could only be impugned by the Lands Authority, Malta Industrial Parks and Vitals Global healthcare and that the transfer of shares is not the same as the transfer of property.
Lawyer Edward Debono, together with lawyer Jason Azzopardi, who is representing Opposition Leader Adrian Delia in this case, argued that the first issue that must be decided is whether a judge of the civil courts had the right to decide whether to split up a case or not. It is the right of the Judge to proceed as he saw fit in a case where the arguments of the AG and the Prime Minister were not of a preliminary nature but on the merits, argued the lawyers.
The Leader of the Opposition has the right, like every other MP, to scrutinise every agreement and contract approved by Parliament, not only when it is introduced but also during the course of the contract, it was argued. Had this not been the case, then Chapter 573 of the Laws of Malta would have been introduced for nothing.
The people’s representatives had a right to scrutinise every agreement approved by parliament not only on their introduction but during the course of it too, they said.
The court of appeal will give a decision on the issue on 29 March.