Cases - Britannia Zinc Ltd v Connect South West Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Britannia Zinc Ltd v Connect South West Ltd
- Date
- [2002]; [2002]
- Citation
- EWHC 606, T&CC; CILL 1927, T&CC
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Expert witness - Civil Procedure Rules
- Summary
-
In a dispute about repair of damage to a cable, an agreement was reached between loss adjuster experts as to the loss suffered. Connect argued that it was not bound by that agreement.
CPR 35.12(5) provides that, in relation to discussions between experts pursuant to a direction of the court,
'where experts reach agreement on an issue during their discussion, the agreement shall not bind the parties unless the parties expressly agree to be bound by the agreement'.
It was suggested in argument that implied authority to agree existed, but the judge held that:
'... it is plain from the terms of CPR 35.12(5) that implied authority is not sufficient to enable a party's expert witness to bind it by any agreement which he might make with an expert acting on behalf of an opposite party'.