Case Summaries: 4 May 1998
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Your support makes all the difference.The following notes of judgments were prepared by the reporters of the All England Law Reports.
Bills of exchange
Novaknit Hellas SA v Kumar International Ltd & ors; CA (Millett, Waller, Chadwick LJJ) 3 Apr 1998.
Bills of exchange which were expressed to be payable "on 60 days from shipment" and "on 60 days from first presentation of documents" were bills of exchange within the meaning of s 3 of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, since the provisions as to the date of maturity were sufficiently certain for the purposes of s 11 of the Act.
Max Mallin (Kosky Seal & Co, Harrow) for the plaintiff; Robert Denman (Slater Links, Bury) for the defendants.
Practice
Portman Building Society v Bond & anor; Ch D (Michael Crystal QC, sitting as a deputy judge) 3 Apr 1998.
A judge had power to rule on a question of admissibility of expert evidence on a pre-trial review and it was desirable, where practicable, for a dispute as to the admissibility of solicitors' expert evidence in a solicitors' negligence case to be resolved before trial, if the proposed parameters of the evidence were sufficiently defined.
Hugh Tomlinson (Clarke Willmott & Clarke, Bristol) for the building society; Stephen Acton (Wansbroughs Willey Hargrave) for the defendants.
Legal aid
R v Legal Aid Board (Merseyside) Area Office, ex p Eccleston; QBD (Sedley J) 3 Apr 1998.
The Legal Aid Board had power under reg 61(2)(d) of the Civil Legal Aid (General) Regulations 1989 to give prior authorisation for an assisted person's reasonable travel expenses in attending a meeting with an expert.
Peter Duffy QC, Tim Eicke (E. Rex Makin & Co) for the applicant; Javan Herberg (Legal Aid Board) for the respondent.
Damages
George Fischer Holding Ltd v Multi Design Consultants Ltd (Roofdec Ltd & ors, third parties); George Fischer Holding Ltd v Davis Langdon & Everest (Roofdec Ltd & anor, third parties); QBD, Official Referees' Business (Judge Hicks QC) 6 Apr 1998.
Where a remedial scheme intended to be implemented after trial of an action for breach of contract for defective work was subsequently rejected by the court, professional fees incurred in respect of designing the scheme could not be recovered as damages, since the cost of such preparatory work was part of the total cost of the scheme in question and stood or fell with the remainder of that cost.
Howard Palmer (Masons) for George Fischer Ltd; Bruce Mauleverer QC, Charles Manzoni (Rowe & Maw) for Multi Design Consultants Ltd; Peter Coulson (Park Nelson) for Davis Langdon & Everest.
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