Court dismisses €6,000 claim against ex-Central Bank deputy governor Alfred Mifsud

The court of Magistrates has dismissed a claim for €6,000 filed by Anna Zelbst, against her former partner, the ex-Deputy Governor of Malta’s Central Bank, Alfred Mifsud.

The case is over two unpaid monthly contributions of €3,000 that Mifsud had allegedly agreed to pay the plaintiff untill their children left home.

Mifsud and Zelbst had been in a 23-year relationship from which two children, now 21 and 18 years old, were born. The two split on bad terms in early 2016.

The ex-banker had been paying Zelbst €3,000 per month for the children’s needs, but had stopped in May 2016.

Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo noted that the parties had testified that after the payments stopped, Zelbst had asked Mifsud for written assurances that he would continue to send financial contributions for as long as the children lived with her.

Zelbst claimed that there was a document attesting to this, which Mifsud had taken from her files whilst she and her children had been abroad. This the subject of separate criminal proceedings against Mifsud, which are currently ongoing.

Zelbst had exhibited a copy of the document she had sent to her lawyer, at the time of its writing.

The allegations then made headlines after being published by Daphne Caruana Galizia on her blog, at a time when Mifsud had been nominated for the post of Governor of the Central bank.

Upon seeing this, Mifsud had withdrawn from the agreement with Zelbst.

The court in its sentence said that the case was not a case for maintenance, but a credit obligation that was binding on Mifsud.

However, the court did not uphold Zelbst’s claim because the contract was neither a contract nor a private writing, but simply a promise. The law laid out three situations where promises are legally binding, but that this particular case did not fit in any of them.

Magistrate Farrugia Frendo ruled that the document therefore did not bind Mifsud to pay €3,000 per month to Zelbst and dismissed the claim.

Lawyer Albert Libreri appeared for Zelbst, whilst lawyers Pawlu Lia and Phyllis Aquilina were counsel to Mifsud.