Claimants in the equity release CreditSelect 4-Series loan case against N.M. Rothschild & Sons and their respective lawyers held a case management hearing, or pre-trial hearing, at the Mercantile Courts in Malaga.
The hearing lasted for a about 1 hour, inclusive of a short recess demanded by the Judge to consult case law on a specific point of law.
The purpose of this meeting was to narrow the issues involved in the case, set deadlines for providing clarification documents, conducting discovery and listing the witnesses who will be attending the hearing.
Rothschild lawyers unsuccessfully attempted to adjourn the hearing on grounds that one of the claimants had passed away, a petition outright rejected by the Judge. They also tried to file the following objections:
- Wrong identification of the companies offering the advertising and the mortgage loans, which they claim are different (Rothschild Bank International and NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd.) The court rejected this as being a matter to be decided on passing judgement, given that she had read the merits of the case and she did not in principle agree with Rothschild’s lawyers.
- Claim filed out of time, which they claim had had to be filed at the very latest in 2010. This was also swiftly not attended by the Court on grounds that it would be dealt with on passing judgement.
On the part of the claimants, lawyers submitted a list of proposed witnesses for the hearing that were all accepted, inclusive of the Baron David Rothschild.
On the whole, the prevalent feeling was the Judge was sympathetic to the claimant’s arguments which is positive.
The negative note relates to the date of the trial which lawyers for claimants find totally shocking yet, unfortunately, cannot be altered: 12th of November 2019.
Claimants not part of this case are not bound by this incredibly protracted timeline and are able to file legal separate actions for miselling/misrepresentation in the -hopefully- quicker Courts of First Instance.
On a different note, a crew from France2 television were present at the event and interviewed some of the victims. They were unsuccessful in getting any responses from Rothschild’s unfriendly lawyers who do not forgive the audacious ‘ambush’ on Mr. Steve Dewsnip who, in spite of being sought after a Criminal Court in Denia, had managed to stay ‘at large’ for years, even travelling freely to Spain to assist Rothschild in their cases against victims.
