(a) The procedural events as I have recited them show that there certainly was maladroit conduct and confusion on 7 December up until 7 March 2012. That can happen in the legal process when parties are not legally represented, so allowances have to be made.
(b) Points of claim were not filed until 7 March 2012. To any lawyer this is a significant document. It was reasonable for Cyngler to insist on delivery of the points of claim especially as the case came to be shown to have become enlarged. True, had Furman been more attentive, he would have seen back in December 2011 that the case was taking on a completely different shape and might have taken steps earlier. He did not which is what pushes the case to the borderline. But the question is whether justice dictates that he be punished for that, and he be refused 3 weeks to seek expert evidence.
(c) A court or tribunal ought as a matter of experience accept that in domestic or large scale building cases, it is necessary or certainly expected that disputants bring forward expert appraisals of the building works so that the tribunal has an independent assessment. Courts and tribunals rely on such evidence in this field. That is even where one of the litigants is a builder because the Tribunal would always prefer an independent assessment. I would go further and say a party would be at a distinct disadvantage in not adducing the evidence from an expert if the case is to be contested.
(d) Cyngler did engage an expert who did conduct an inspection but who could not attend at the hearing. I think as a sign of a genuine desire to obtain the evidence, he sought to have another expert look at the property the day before the hearing, but access was refused by the owners. I think this is evidence that the adjournment was not a mere delaying tactic but there was, albeit belatedly, a desire to obtain the expert evidence. His evidence was that another expert was able to inspect on 30 March.
(e) My one reservation about the situation is that Cyngler did not inform the Tribunal as part of the adjournment application what the expected opposing evidence would be. That is, it would have aided the application if the Tribunal had been told that an inspection had revealed a basis for the builder to contend certain things in opposition to the claim put. He might have been in a position to say "Our expert will say...". Instead, it came to be an application based upon a need to obtain the opinion of an expert to consider the case to be put.
(f) But, Cyngler did try to get an expert in time and may well have been in the position to adduce the evidence or at least be in a better position on 23 March to ask for an adjournment based upon the expected content of expert evidence. Even so, the injustice caused here was having to then run a case without even the opportunity of soliciting an expert opinion and then losing a case because there was no expert opinion put in opposition to the owners' expert evidence.
(e) All things considered, I think the builder has been punished for his inattention on 7 December 2011, and come 7 March 2012 when the points of claim were filed I think it simply left insufficient time for expert evidence to be obtained and considered and a case properly prepared.
(f) The builder was seeking an adjournment for "at least" three weeks, but the miscarriage occurred I think in not allowing a short adjournment possibly no longer than three weeks. Thus, whatever the injustice on the owners in having the determination of their case delayed, the greater injustice I think lay in depriving the builder of properly considering the case put against him.
(g) One can well understand the owners' desire to proceed and the Tribunal's desire to avoid any more delay in a protracted proceeding. But if anything, the history of this case as I have recited it and the unusual orders made, and then the eventual enlargement of the case I think called for real caution.