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RUST chairman Mark Thomas was present at the hearing and posted the events on the MillersMAD messageboards, heres what he said.
I was one of three members of the Supporters Trust who attended the court hearing this morning with the intention of getting as much information as possible about each party's case.
The case was scheduled to be heard in the Judges Chambers which is usually a room that is quite simply not big enough to accommodate a public hearing which involves more people attending than the lawyers. We were worried that the Judge may exercise his discretion under the rules to decide that it was not practicable to hold the hearing in public because of shortage of space in his room. We were also worried that there might be an application for the case to be heard in private.
Before the hearing we therefore had a letter from the Supporters Trust placed before the Judge requesting that the hearing be heard in public "on the basis that it is in the public interest and that the destiny of any proceedings relating to the ground is of crucial importance to the supporters trust and to all the supporters of RUFC".
The Judge then moved the case from his chambers to a court room to accommodate those wishing to be present.
Today's hearing involved an application by the Booth's for the clubs claim to be struck out on the basis that the Booths say that there are no reasonable grounds in the clubs written case for allowing the claim to proceed. Only part of the case was heard today. Both barristers agreed that the two and a half hours set aside for today's hearing was insufficient to hear all the legal argument.
The barrister presenting the Booth case made representations to the Judge for three hours setting out the Booth position and commenting on the club case. The clubs barrister made representations for forty five minutes at which stage there was no court time left. Hence, only a small part of the club's case was heard. The lawyers estimated that the case requires at least another half day for all the legal arguments to be presented.
The Judge therefore adjourned the case to a date to be fixed. The lawyers have to let the court know within the next seven days what their availability is over the next few months.
The Judge said that after hearing all the legal arguments next time he intends to adjourn the case again because he said there is clearly a lot to think about and he commented that there is clearly serious interest in this case. He will therefore eventually deliver a Reserved judgement which means a judgement in writing after he has had time to consider all the legal arguments.
We took detailed notes of the hearing and intend to put together a more detailed report for fans as soon as possible to give information about each party's case.
As usual, MillersMAD will bring you the latest news on events around Millmoor, and will bring you the date of the next hearing when it is known.
To have your say on the court case, visit the messageboard by clicking HERE