Read the full judgment text of HCA 4089/1994 on BabelCite. This Court of First Instance judgment was delivered on 21 January 2013 before L Chan J.
Civil procedure – interrogatories – withdrawal – 16-day fraud trial – defendants' application to set aside plaintiff's interrogatories served shortly before trial – whether to require interrogatories to be answered – Court of Appeal directed trial for 4 February 2013 – plaintiff served 41 items comprising 170 questions on 18 December 2012, reduced to 31 items comprising 151 questions – neither party guilty of delay in preparing case – interrogatories not administered belatedly – court declined to require interrogatories to be answered due to timing – trial of 16 days requiring substantial preparation by defence team – witnesses all in Germany requiring instructions – interlocutory appeal scheduled for 24 January 2013 also requiring preparation – court refrained from ordering answers not on merits of interrogatories but because it was too late – since neither party guilty of delay and no finding on merits, no order as to costs on defendants' application.
Legal issues: Whether to require defendants to answer interrogatories served shortly before trial
Outcome: Defendants' application for withdrawal of the interrogatories allowed; the court refrained from requiring the interrogatories to be answered due to the late stage of trial preparation, with no finding on the merits of the interrogatories.
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