A final decision about annulling contracts for the running of three hospitals is set to be taken on Monday (October 23).

Steward Health Care had appealed a court judgment to annul the contracts as being fraudulent.

Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti and two other judges finished hearing submissions about the appeal in July and are now expected to hand down their final decision.

In a strongly worded judgment in February, Judge Francesco Depasquale had condemned Steward for having intended to “unjustly enrich itself at the expense of the government and Maltese and Gozitan citizens” when taking over the running of St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals.

That court case was started by then-Opposition leader, now PN MP Adrian Delia.

In its appeal, Steward argued that it was itself defrauded by the Maltese government, which made promises that it then did not fulfil. The government has since taken over the running of the three hospitals following a bitter fallout with Steward. Steward argued in its appeal that the government clearly capitalised on the February judgment to take back the hospitals.

Steward’s lawyers said Depasquale’s sentence presented a scenario of legal confusion since, although the court laid great emphasis on fraud, it was not clear whether it had decided on the basis of fraud or an alleged breach of contract.

The case is also being disputed in international arbitration.

Steward took over the running of the hospitals in 2018, after the previous concessionaries Vitals Global Healthcare crashed out of the contract.

According to Judge Depasquale, both Steward and Vitals had acted fraudulently.

The appeal decision is unrelated to a magisterial inquiry that has zoomed in on the role of former prime minister Joseph Muscat in the deal.

Muscat is being investigated for potential corruption and money laundering in connection with payments he received from a Swiss company linked to Steward.

The ex-prime minister’s home was searched last year on the strength of an order by magistrate Gabriella Vella.

Muscat denies any wrongdoing.