Rose Gibb faces a wait to find out whether she will receive a £250,000 pay off.

Mr Justice Treacy told the High Court today he would make a reserved judgement, giving him more time to go over the complex legal arguments.

Miss Gibb, the former chief executive of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, is suing the trust for £175,000.

She says the cash is an unpaid part of a £250,000 severance package she was promised in October 2007.

But the trust now claims it exceeded its legal powers in making the deal, which was never approved by the Treasury, and says she is only due a £75,000 pay-off.

She left the trust days before the Healthcare Commission published a damning report into two C-diff outbreaks at the Maidstone, Pembury and Kent and Sussex hospitals, in which 90 people died.

Arguments in the court centred on whether, as chief executive, Miss Gibb should be held responsible for the failures highlighted in the report.

Yesterday, representatives for the trust said awarding Miss Gibb the full amount would be wrong.

Jane McNeill, for the trust, said that Miss Gibb was paid, as a high-ranking NHS official, to take responsibility.

"There is a policy argument that paying her would be rewarding failure," she told the court.

But Miss Gibb's legal team hit back claiming she had been made a political scapegoat when her severance was halted.

Miss Gibb's counsel, Oliver Segal, said: "Opposition MPs and the media were baying for blood. They are sensitive to populist sentiment and it was part of a campaign directed partly at Rose Gibb personally."

Mr Segal also claimed that Miss Gibb was "misled" into signing the agreement after being told all the necessary approvals were in place.

He also asked Mr Justice Treacy to consider that, if Miss Gibb had not signed the agreement, she could have launched an unfair dismissal claim against the trust, which she said would bring negative headlines and could cost the trust thousands if they contested it.

The deal with the trust also imposed a confidentiality clause on Miss Gibb.

"An ungagged Rose Gibb had the potential to be very damaging to the trust," Mr Segal added.

It is not yet known when the final judgement will be given.

• See all our coverage of the C-diff deaths, the Healthcare Commission report and its aftermath in our special report.

• Read Rose Gibb's defiant defence of her role in the C-diff scandal.