RE: Court Case15 Sep 2023 16:08
Mr Wolfe, you assemble all your evidence prior to, or at the earliest convenience once a case begins. The court set down a rigorous timetable for witness statements and so on to be filed, and for directions hearings, setting out procedures to be followed. I haven't seen all the pleadings in this case, just the particulars of claim and the amended particulars of claim. I think I did start to read the company's defence but gave up, because my early view was it was a non runner from their perspective. It appeared to me that they had simply dragged their feet over the matter because they didn't want the market flooding with a mass of shares for sale when they were looking at placings etc, it didn't suit their agenda, and between them, the claimants are holding over 380 million shares! My view is probably also tainted by the fact that the company kept these proceedings secret for 18 months until another shareholder stumbled across them, so clearly the company were trying to hoodwink retail investors and keep it from them, in my opinion.
Once the court gives directions, they expect the directions to be adhered to. Those directions will include the filing of witness statements in a timely manner. The court will only expect witness statements from those who have been made known within the pleadings. So when eurasia filed their defence to the action, they should have stated then what witnesses if any they intended to rely on to support their case, but it seems they didn't do that.
The court listed the matter for trial over a month ago, being the week commencing 13 November from memory, as I rang to ask them. So at this late stage, when pleadings should now be concluded, and trial bundles will be under way to being prepared by the claimants, it was very late in the day to try and introduce new evidence in the form of a witness that you haven't previously bothered to mention to the court. It's poor form in a civil case, when you must have known from the start who you intended to call effectively.
The Judge has the discretion to throw the case out at first instance if the Judge believes the case to be spurious and brought for no obvious reason. The Judge hasn't done that, and the Judge will have read the pleadings to date, so assumedly the Judge must think there is a case to be heard.
These are my own views because I am not practising, but as I say, to make an application to produce new witness evidence at such a late stage, and now by the sounds of it, they don't even know who they wanted to produce as a new witness, well, I can only imagine what the Judge thought in her own mind!
So in a nutshell, the Judge must think there is a viable case to be heard and it's going to trial. As I have said, my gut feeling is that this will be a win for the claimants, but at the end of the day, it comes down to oral evidence from the parties and any witnesses, and who the Judge determines is the more credible party. My views only & the Judge will de