Lord Chief Justice O. G. Paulsen, declared that Mateni’s endeavour to become a member of parliament by registering as a candidate on 23 October 2014, becoming elected as a People's Representative on 27 November 2014 and taking an oath to be a member of parliament on 19 January 2015, had breached Clause 65 of the Tongan Constitution, and was therefore unlawful and invalid.

Clause 65 of the Constitution – Qualification of representatives prohibits a person being chosen as a people's representative: “against whom an order has been made in any Court in the Kingdom for the payment of a specific sum of money the whole or any part of which remains outstanding... on the day on which such person submits his nomination paper to the Returning Officer..." 

Newspaper

Prior to Mateni’s making the move to become a member of the Tongan Parliament, he, as the editor, his wife, Laucala, the publisher and the Kele’a newspaper were found guilty in the Magistrate Court on 17 June 2011 for defaming William Clive Edwards in an article  that was published in the newspaper in 2010. They were ordered by the Magistrate's Court to pay Clive Edwards $10,000 for damages and $4500 for legal costs.

However, since 17 June 2011 Mateni has been trying to overturn the Magistrate's Court decision.

On 10 February 2012 Mateni and co-defendants appealed against the decision of the Magistrate's Court to the Supreme Court, but Clive Edwards also applied for the appeal to strike out.

On 5 June 2012, Lord Chief Justice Scott struck out the appeal on the grounds that there had been “inordinate and inexcusable delay in the prosecution of the appeal.”

On 7 August 2012 Mateni and his co-defendants filed an ex parte application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal against Lord chief Justice Scott's dismissal of their application.

On 30 August 2012, Lord Chief Justice Scott, a member of the Court of Appeal, allowed the application to appeal and granted a stay of execution of the judgment of the Magistrate’s Court.

On 24 June 2015 the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal case with costs to Clive Edwards.

While Mateni and his co-defendants were preoccupied with trying to overturn the Magistrate's Court decision, the Attorney General on 7 August 2015 applied to the Supreme Court to declare that the election of Mateni Tapueluelu as the People's Representative for Tongatapu 4 Electoral Constituency was unconstitutional. The Attorney General called for an urgent hearing of the civil action “due to the importance of the civil action made under the Constitution.”

The date of the hearing was 12 November 2015.

In his ruling and declarations on 11 December 2015 Chief Justice Paulsen stated that "...I consider that Mr. Tapueluelu fell within the disqualification imposed by clause 65. At the date of his nomination there was a jdugement of the Magistrate's Court against him for the payment of a specific sum of money that remained outstanding. He was, as a consequence, inelegible for election in the 2014 General Elections.".

The judge reserved his decision on costs.