A multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed against three former trustees of Port Royal Golf Course by the One Bermuda Alliance government is back on the Supreme Court list.

A hearing on the case is scheduled to take place before Puisne Judge Stephen Hellman in chambers this morning.

The Royal Gazette requested permission to attend and Mr Justice Hellman agreed, subject to representations from lawyers for both sides in the case.

The civil case was launched by former attorney-general Trevor Moniz against Progressive Labour Party MP Zane DeSilva and others in February last year.

It alleged that Mr DeSilva and two other Port Royal trustees, Wendall Brown and Delano Bulford, breached their fiduciary duties and took part in “self-dealing” during construction work at publicly owned Port Royal between 2007 and 2009.

A key claim was that the trustees of the Southampton golf course failed to adopt a system to avoid conflicts of interest in the project. Papers submitted to the court alleged: “Some trustees actively sought to promote the interests of trustees over other contractors.”

A report by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee found the taxpayer-funded refurbishment cost almost $20 million more than the original $4.5 million budgeted.

An earlier report by Heather Jacobs Matthews, then Auditor-General, said the final bill was $24 million, compared to an original price of $4.5 million.

The Auditor-General’s report added the work was blighted by extensive cost overruns, a lack of oversight and “total disregard” for rules on government expenditure. The project was also scrutinised by a 2016 Commission of Inquiry, which was set up to probe the misspending of public funds.

The commission heard how the board of trustees paid $10,000 of public money to a company awarded a contract for goods, so the company could pay the cash to Mr Bulford as a “finder’s fee”.

Sir Anthony Evans, the commission chairman, said the transaction was “straightforward fraud”.

The civil lawsuit filed by Mr Moniz was taken off the Supreme Court list in August last year for review by Kathy Lynn Simmons, who replaced Mr Moniz as Attorney-General after the PLP’s General Election win. Ms Simmons, also Government Senate Leader, told a press conference that month that the legal action — and a separate lawsuit brought by Mr Moniz against the Lahey Clinic — were “very sensitive” and had been handled in a an “unprecedented and concerning” way.

She said there were no litigation files in the Attorney-General’s Chambers for either case, which was “highly irregular”.

Mr Moniz, now Shadow Attorney-General, said at the time: “In respect of the Port Royal matter, during my time as AG, the litigation file was maintained by the Deputy Solicitor-General.”

Michael Scott, a PLP MP, told Parliament in September that the lawsuit was still under judicial consideration and could not be discussed in the House of Assembly. Mr Moniz said the public was “probably interested” to know if the case was “in a temporary limbo” or had been abandoned altogether.

The Shadow Attorney-General urged David Burt, the Premier, to “take a firm position on improprieties of past governments” and press ahead with the litigation. Backbencher Mr DeSilva, who was PLP social development and sport minister for six months before he resigned in January, said yesterday he was not aware of today’s hearing and planned to contact his lawyer for more information.

The lawsuit listed Mr DeSilva, Mr Brown and Mr Bulford as defendants, along with Mr DeSilva’s Island Construction company and Mr Brown’s firm SAL Ltd.

Neither Mr Brown or Mr Bulford could be contacted for comment. The Attorney-General’s Chambers did not respond to a request for comment.