Section 49: Court report as prima facie evidence

Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section

1. Supreme Court Judgment No. 987/2541 (1998)

   Where the parties make a statement in court, the court records it in the report of proceedings, reads the report to the parties, and counsel signs it, the report is prima facie evidence that the proceedings took place as recorded, under section 49. That is the whole of section 49's work here. Where the recorded statement is that a party abandons every defence in its answer save one, the effect of that statement is an admission of the facts pleaded, and it is section 84(1) that relieves the other party of having to prove them.

   Before the day fixed for taking evidence, in a case in which the first defendant was in default of answer, counsel for the plaintiff and counsel for the second and third defendants attended and jointly stated that the case was very nearly settled, asked for a postponement to record the settlement at the next hearing, and said that the second and third defendants were content to abandon every defence in their answer save the single issue of damages, which alone they would contest if no settlement was reached. The trial court recorded that in the report of proceedings and read it to the parties, and counsel for the second and third defendants signed it. The Supreme Court held that the report was accordingly prima facie evidence under section 49, and that the statement amounted to an abandonment of the other defences, including the defence that the first defendant was not the second defendant's employee acting in the course of employment, so that under section 84(1) the plaintiff no longer had to prove that fact.

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.