- December 16, 2022
- |Civil Law, Practice, And Procedure, Concise Law Reports (CLR)
‘[13] The parties filed a joint pre-trial report dated 3 March 2022 which was made an order of court on 8 March 2022. In the pre-trial report, the parties restated the averments stipulated in their particulars of claim and the plea, such that the pre-trial report constituted a replica of the pleadings. By not clearly setting out the issues of fact and law to be resolved at the trial as well the agreed facts, the approach adopted by the parties of regurgitating the pleadings is of little assistance to the court.
[14] The High court in Mbaile v Shiindi (HC-NLD-CIV-ACT-DEL-2018/00316) [2020] NAHCNLD 152 (22 October 2020) emphasized the importance of listing issues in dispute between the parties, and remarked as follows in para [10]:
‘The stage of the pre-trial hearing is arguably the most crucial procedural step leading to the trial. It requires of the parties or their legal representatives to analyse the pleadings and documents filed of record with an eagle eye and in order to unambiguously lay the factual issues in dispute before court. Inevitably, at this stage, the pleadings would have been closed and discovery occurred (Rule 26 of the High Court). The parties are therefore duty bound to strip the pleadings and documents filed of record to their bare bones in order to identify the real issues for resolution by the court. Parties should further be mindful that they are bound to the issues which they bring to court for determination. It is not the responsibility of the court to navigate through various issues raised for determination in order to pinpoint what is relevant, but that of the parties to bring forth their disputes and point out the issues for determination from their dispute.’
[15] The parties must come to the aid of the court to discern factual and legal issues to be resolved at trial and at best identify agreed facts and clearly set them out. Courts should not be labored with the exercise to examine every conceivable factual dispute, but the parties should limit the issues for determination to what is material and reasonably necessary for the determination of the matter. Similarly, parties must point out all agreed facts or facts that are not in dispute so that the valuable court time can be utilized to determining real and live disputed issues between the parties.
[16] The pre-trial order filed in this matter, as alluded to earlier, is of little assistance to the court. I will, therefore, consider the pleadings and the evidence in order to determine whether or not the plaintiff proved his claim.’
Bergmann v Rautenbach (HC-MD-CIV-ACT-DEL-2018-01752) [2022] NAHCMD 687 (16 December 2022) – Pre-trial reports