Cost record set by Maxicrop case

Press, 27 November 1987, Page 17

Cost record set by Maxicrop case

PA Wellington The Maxicrop defamation case, which ended with the delivery of a High Court decision recently, is believed to be one of the longest running and most expensive in New Zealand legal history. Originally expected to last six weeks when it began in September, 1986, it stretched out until September this year. The court sat for 135 days, oral evidence mounted up to more than 2500 pages and more than 700 exhibits were produced. Late in the case the Bell Booth Group revealed that legal costs and witnesses’ expenses would amount to more than $2.25 million. This figure did not include the cost of having company executives sitting in on much of the trial. Mr Des Dalgety, of Bell Gully Buddle and Weir, appeared as leading counsel for Bell Booth until he became ill and was replaced by Mr Tony Ford of the same firm. Mr Don Turley shared the workload with Mr Ford, assisted by Miss Charlotte Cunninghame. The Ministry of Agriculture indicated its costs were substantially less than the Bell Booth figure, although it would have

faced high costs for the expert witnesses it flew in from the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia. The lawyers, Dr Don Mathieson, Q.C., and Mr Chris Gudsell, worked full-time on the case, assisted by two or three Ministry staff members who sat through most of the trial. The Broadcasting Corporation dropped out of the case in May after Bell Booth dropped the suit against it. Although the corporation would have had no witnesses’ expenses to pay, it had bills to pay from hiring two lawyers, Mr Tom Goddard and Miss Sandra Moran. As well as paying for the costs of the Ministry and the B.C.N.Z. to defend themselves in the action, the taxpayer will have had to pay for having a High Court judge, court registrar, one court, and a succession of stenographers tied up in the case. No estimate of this cost was possible, said the High Court Registrar, John Earles. The Bell Booth Group submitted to the Court that the “Fair Go” programme had had a devastating effect on it, forcing it into de facto receivership, sale of assets and closure of branches. As well as being extra-

ordinarily long and costly, the case is undoubtedly one of the most scientifically complex which has been before a New Zealand High Court. Among the 80 witnesses called were biometricians, statisticians, soil fertility specialists, analytical chemists, agronomists and plant physiologists. Non-scientific witnesses have included a mathematician, accountants, property valuers, television personalities, farmers, retailers, an advertising consultant, financial analysts, a professor of marketing and a police expert in sound technology. Before the programme the company had gross earnings of more than $7 million, 80 employees and was increasing its sales of Maxicrop yearly, the Court was told. Mr Justice Ellis and the lawyers involved in the case had to become experts on such matters as plant biology, confidence intervals, plant growth mechanisms, statistical significance, dry matter yield, and cytokinins, to keep up with the witnesses. His Honour’s discussion of scientific trials done on Maxicrop forms a 111page appendix to his judgment.