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Litigation & Dispute Resolution

The importance of a correct notification in Court proceedings

Basic as it may seem, the notification process is of fundamental importance when instituting a Court case. This process can at times be used to attack the validity of a judgement and hence, one will certainly understand the importance of getting it right. All this featured in a Court of Appeal judgement, delivered on the 4th of May 2022 in the names Farrugia nomine vs BNF Bank plc (App. Ċiv. 410/19/1). The case concerned a Bank customer, who defaulted in the repayment of her loan facilities. As a result, the Bank called in the facilities and initiated legal proceedings to…
Kevin Cutajar
30th June 2022
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Employment and Industrial Relations

Court of Appeal Confirms the Enforceability of a Post-termination of Employment Restrictive Clause

In a case decided on the 4th May 2022 (case number 524/14), the Court of Appeal held that a restriction contained in an employment contract which prevented an employee from soliciting or interfering or endeavouring to entice a customer away from the company after termination of employment, for a period of two years, could be enforced by the employer. The First Hall of the Civil Court had decided that since the clause was not restricted to customers with whom the employee had dealings with during his employment, then the clause was null. The Court of Appeal however decided that the…
Christine Calleja
30th June 2022
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Legal Updates

Bona fide disputes and defining a creditor for the purposes of liquidation proceedings

In a decision delivered on the 13th March 2022, case no. 246/2018 ISB, the Civil Court (Commercial Section) placed the defendant company into liquidation on the ground that it was unable to pay its debts, after considering and concluding that the circumstances that had previously led the Court in the same case to determine the existence of a bona fide dispute and consequently suspend the hearing of the liquidation proceedings, no longer existed. The circumstances referred to consisted of proceedings instituted by defendant company in The Netherlands against the company demanding its liquidation in Malta ('the applicant company') as well…
Mamo TCV Advocates
5th April 2022
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Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Landmark Decision on Jactitation Suits

Jactitation suits are a long established remedy found under Maltese procedural law intended to limit one's ability to indefinitely vaunt claims without basis. This type of suit allows any person, whether natural or legal, that has had any form of right vaunted against him in written form to request the court to order the third party claimant to either bring the claim in trial within a period not exceeding three months or be forever precluded from proceeding with such a claim in the future. The remedy is a relatively simple one and while rarely used, due to its practical implications…
Kirk Brincau
27th January 2022
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Banking & FinanceLitigation & Dispute Resolution

Court of Appeal Judgment Supports Bank’s Decision Not To Authorise Client To Withdraw Funds From His Account

This article was written by​ Dr Maria Lisa Buttigieg & Tessa Borg Bartolo.In a recent decision delivered by the Court of Appeal in its Inferior Jurisdiction, the Court of Appeal overturned a decision delivered by the Arbiter for Financial Services concerning BNF Bank's decision not to authorize a client to withdraw funds from a bank account held in the client's name and this after the Bank was informed by the client that his mother, who was indicated as a debtor in a number of garnishee orders, was using his account to deposit her salary.Although the client had admitted that his…
Maria-Lisa Buttigieg
15th November 2021
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Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Recent Court of Appeal Judgment Confirms Banking Practice of Charging of Commitment Fees

This article was written by​ Dr Maria Lisa Buttigieg & Tessa Borg Bartolo​​.A client of BNF Bank p.l.c. instituted proceedings before the Arbiter for Financial Services against the said Bank in order to obtain a refund on certain fees imposed by the Bank in relation to loan facilities granted by the Bank to the said client.The fees which the client requested a refund of consisted of relative processing fees, legal fees and commitment fees. The client in her complaint alleged that the fees were not clearly communicated to her and that the commitment fee should not have been charged since she had…
Maria-Lisa Buttigieg
15th October 2021