This week Past President Judi Rastall delivered a talk entitled The Expert Witness detailing how individuals with deep and broad knowledge in a particular field may be called upon to settle contractual disputes, or apportion blame after an incident involving multiple parties.
Judi’s long career as a civil engineer in the rail industry, working all over the world, equipped her with the knowledge required to take on such tasks, and she detailed two fascinating cases she was involved with, the first of which is outlined below.
The case involved an electric train pulling down the over head power cable, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds in repairs and lost earnings. The track maintenance company considered the train operator to be at fault, as the train’s pantograph hadn’t been refurbished with the last two years as required.
Judi was able to show that the cable’s rate of change in height had been built on the limit and that a broken supporting chain (noted by the track maintainer but not yet fixed) had caused the cable to exceed the specification. Furthermore, the pantograph was not yet due for a refurbishment, as it had been stored for some time after the last one and had not yet been two years in service.
By having knowledge and experience of both track and rolling stock, Judi was unusually well-placed to research the incident and correctly apportion blame in a way the legal profession, unaided, would be unequipped to do.