PN says GWU request for recusal in Valletta lease case a delaying tactic

A lawyer representing the Nationalist Party in a case over the lease of the Workers Memorial Building to General Workers’ Union, has described the union's request for the substitution of the presiding judge as a “delaying tactic.”

Judge Jacqueline Padovani Grima is presiding the case filed against the union by the Nationalist Party over an alleged breach of the lease conditions for the Workers Memorial Building. The PN is alleging that the GWU sublet parts of the building to third parties, in breach of the original lease conditions.

In April, the judge had turned down the GWU's request that she recuse herself.  In the past, the GWU had pointed to the judge's family ties to lawyers at Fenech and Fenech, who are representing the PN in the proceedings, arguing that this did not reassure it that it would enjoy an impartial and independent judicial process. 

The following month, the union had filed an application before the Constitutional Court, suggesting that judge Padovani Grima's impartiality in this case was in doubt and asking that she be substituted.

Lawyer Aaron Mifsud Bonnici, representing the GWU, had requested that the case be postponed until a final decision in the constitutional case was made.

The GWU wants the constitutional case to be settled before the case over the lease continues in the First Hall of the Civil Court.

This morning lawyer Edward Debono, who is appearing on behalf of the PN, asked judge Padovani Grima to dismiss the GWU's request to await the outcome of constitutional proceedings, describing it as a delaying tactic intended to prevent the case from being decided until after the lapse of the lease in question.

Lawyer John Bonello, who together with Mifsud Bonnici, is representing the GWU in these proceedings, argued that the case must be postponed to avoid the possibility of a decision that could conflict with the outcome of the constitutional case.

Judge Padovani Grima announced that she would be delivering a final judgment on 12 June.