EXPENSIVE CASE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 451, 8 February 1933, Page 7

EXPENSIVE CASE

costs pile up LITIGATION EXPENSES OF ENGLISH CIVIL ACTIO'N. LASTED OVER A MONTH. London, Saturdety. Nearly 13 000 questions were put to witnesses in a Chancery suit in which Mr. Justice Clauson reserved judgment, after a trial which began orJ November 1 and had occupied u4 days. The action was that of British Celanese, Limited, v. Gourtaulds, Limited. | It related to patented processes for the ' manufacture of artificial silk, and is estimated to have cost about £40,000, ! of which more than half will represent j the fees of five King's Counsel and four juniors. ! Thirteen of the 34 days were devoted to counsels' opening and final speeches, and shorthand notes of these, as well as of the evidence, have been taken, in anticipation of the case going. to the Court of Appeal, and ultimately to the House of Lords. The number of questions put is about normal in actions of this protracted kind, but there have been striking examples of variation, due to the time expended upon speeches and arguments as eompared with evidence. Although the famous case, National Telephone Cpmpany v. PostmasterGeneral, lasted 72 days, and one witness was under examination for 13 days, fewer than 20,000 questions in all were asked. One witness alone answered 6398 questions in the case United Diamond Fields of British Guinea v. Diamond Syndicate, tried in 1930. Amalgamated Properties of Rhodesia (1913) Limited v. Globe and Phoenix Gold Mining Company took up 145 days and 50,000 questions were asked. A case before an Offieial Referee for 55 days in 1910 — Cruse v. Williams and Robinson — produced 26,252 questions, and the number of questions asked at the trial of the Slingsby cause celebre may be guessed at from the fact that the mere reading of the evidence in the Court of Appeal occupied 10i days. Between 9000 and 10,000 questions were put to 24 witnesses in the trial at the first instance of Bank of Portugal v. W. Waterlow and Sons, Limited, a little over a year ago.