SOMETHING LIKE A LAWSUIT!

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 136, 1 August 1911, Page 2

SOMETHING LIKE A LAWSUIT!

The Equity Court succeeded on July 21th in bowing, out of Court a suit which had kept it “engaged” just two months and two days. 'lt was probably the most prolonged equity tussle in the legal history of the State (says the Sydney “Daily Telegraph”). Since May 22nd, when it began, the hearing absorbed no loss than thirty-two sitting days. It was not that the witnesses were numerous; they were few, but select. One expert called into the box by the defence stayed there a week and a half—that is to say, seven hearing days. Another, who did not have much to say, was disposed of in four days. The addresses of counsel were brief, in view of nil the circumstances,, and. were rushed through in a fortnight. Counsel for the plaintiff spoke for six Court days; the defence replied in four. The Judge wasted no words upon his judgment. He got through the reading of it in about foity minutes; then, a copy being asked for, the best part of yesterday was taken up in typewriting it. Five barristers were briefed. A rough estimate of the costs of the suit to both paitios sets them down at a round £IO,OOO. The suit was all about a process for the extraction ot minerals from ore,.the Oro Concentration Co. (1905), Limited, and the Australian Ore Concentration Syndicate, Ltd., alleging the infringement of a patent against the Sulphide Corporation, Ltd. -Mr Justice Simpson found for the defendants. When the suit is finally disposed of, the daily law list will look lonely. But the suit is not quite done with yefc. A small matter of a hundred or two sterling is to l)e mentioned upon the question of costs.