Duty to Alert the Court of Possible Settlement

HFC Bank Plc v HSBC Bank Plc (CA TLR 26 April)

At the close of argument the Court of Appeal announced that it would take time to consider and put its judgments in writing. On 7 February, each member of the court having prepared a reasoned judgment, counsel’s clerks were informed that judgment would be given next morning. However on 3 February the parties had agreed that there should be a meeting on 7 February and at that meeting a compromise agreement was arrived at. On 8 February the court was informed that the parties had come to terms overnight and wished that the appeal be dismissed. It might be that the parties’ solicitors did not know there was going to be a meeting on 7 February but the court was not concerned only with the parties’ legal advisers. It was concerned with the parties themselves. It was their duty to inform the court of the possibility of a settlement when the meeting had been arranged. The parties and their legal advisers had apologised to the court through counsel. Their apologies were accepted. In a case where judgment has been reserved it is the duty of the parties and the professional advisers to inform the court immediately they become aware of any development which might make it unnecessary for judgment to be delivered. The duty has always existed and it now expressly imposed by rule 1 of the CPR. The foundation of the duty is not the personal inconvenience caused to the members of the court, acute though that might be. It was the requirement, which should be obvious to all, that the court’s resources should be properly and efficiently deployed. The duty to inform the court that there was a possibility of settlement arose at any rate on 3 February and a communication to the court ought then to have been made.