9 DOMBO BEHEER B.V. v. THE NETHERLANDS JUDGMENT parties - the sum of NLG 2,600,000 was mentioned. It is clear from the statement of the witness [Van W.] - and Dombo did not contest this again after the examination of that witness - that at the end of January 1981 the then managing director of Dombo, by misleading the witness, twice succeeded in drawing considerable sums over and above what was already to be regarded as officially a substantial overdraft on Dombo’s consolidated accounts. This amount could reasonably provide the [Bank] with grounds for temporarily ‘shutting off the flow of credit’ to Dombo." The Court of Appeal further held that since the agreement had not been proved, it was not necessary to examine the question whether the Bank had in fact frozen Dombo’s accounts in breach of it and it went on to dismiss Dombo’s claim. 20. In June 1986 Dombo filed an appeal on points of law (cassatie) to the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad). Paragraph 2 of its (quite extensive) statement of grounds of appeal (middel van cassatie) was particularly directed against Judge Van E.’s decisions to uphold the objections to hearing Mr van Reijendam as a witness for Dombo and reject those against hearing Mr van W. as a witness for the Bank. This paragraph argued, inter alia: "Furthermore, the decisions of the Court of Appeal, (also) if considered in relation to one another, are incorrect in view of Article 6 (art. 6) of the [Convention], which guarantees everyone a fair hearing of his case in the determination of his civil rights and obligations. After all, this provision implies (inter alia) that the parties should be able to fight each other with equal means (‘equality of arms’) and that every party to civil proceedings should have the opportunity to present his case to the court in circumstances which do not place him at a substantial disadvantage vis-à-vis the opposing party." 21. The Advocate-General (advocaat-generaal), in her advisory opinion (conclusie) of 8 January 1988, formulated the opinion that Dombo was right to argue that "according to current legal opinion" a person who "could be identified with a party" should be allowed to testify. In support of this view she referred to the new law of evidence in civil procedure, which had by then been accepted by Parliament (see paragraph 27 below). As an additional argument in favour of this proposition she pointed to Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1) of the Convention, on which Dombo could in her view properly rely. In this connection she argued, inter alia: "In the present case the point was that [Mr van W.] was able to present his view of what was (or was not, as the case may be) agreed or discussed between himself and Mr van Reijendam in December 1980 to the court extensively (his statement comprises four pages in the official record and two pages in the judgment of the Court of Appeal), while Mr van Reijendam was not allowed to give his version of the events himself. Yet the success of Dombo’s action depended on that." She went on to advise allowing Dombo’s appeal. 22. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on 19 February 1988. It rejected Dombo’s arguments based on "current legal opinion", considering that the law of evidence in force was based on the exclusion of parties as witnesses in their own case so that it was not possible to anticipate the entry