DOMBO BEHEER B.V. v. THE NETHERLANDS JUDGMENT 8 witness at this point, when Mr van Reijendam had not been so heard, would upset the fair balance that should exist between parties in civil proceedings. 18. By a decision delivered orally on 13 March 1985 Judge Van E. dismissed Dombo’s objection. He considered first and foremost that Mr van W. was a competent witness in the instant case since he was not a party to the proceedings either formally or in fact and went on to state that it could not follow from the fact that Dombo was put at a disadvantage because Mr van Reijendam was not heard as a witness while Mr van W. was so heard that Mr van W. was no longer a competent witness. The Court of Appeal judge proceeded to hear the Bank’s witnesses immediately. After the witnesses had been examined, both parties submitted extensive written pleadings in which they analysed the witnesses’ statements. Dombo submitted a large number of additional documents, including written statements by persons not heard as witnesses; the Bank also submitted further documents. Dombo then submitted pleadings in response to those of the Bank. 19. The Court of Appeal delivered its final judgment on 11 March 1986. It first examined the witnesses’ statements in detail. As far as the statements of the witness Mr C.U. were concerned (see paragraph 16 above), it observed that these contradicted each other on a significant point, namely the figure to which it had been agreed to extend the credit facility, and added that this discrepancy, for which no explanation had been given, adversely affected the convincingness of the statements of this witness. The Court of Appeal then examined a number of written depositions submitted by Dombo. Two of these were rejected because they were not signed. With regard to a deposition signed by Mr van Reijendam, the Court attributed the same value to it as to a statement made by Dombo itself. The Court of Appeal went on to hold: "The Court of Appeal is of the opinion that the evidence required from Dombo has not been provided. The statements of the witnesses [D., H. and O.] are not definite enough for this purpose and the statement of [C.U.] and the notarial statement made by [S.] - whose experience, as considered, dates only from after 12 May 1981 - are contradicted by those of the witnesses [Van W. and K.]. The fact that no written evidence is available of such an important agreement as that referred to by Dombo, as would normally be expected, compels the Court of Appeal to take a strict view of the evidence, and this should also be taken into account. It was established during the proceedings that between December 1980 and January 1981 the [Bank] in effect consented to extend the credit facilities to Dombo in various forms in larger amounts than Dombo was entitled to by virtue of any written agreement, but this does not necessarily mean that Dombo was entitled to the credit facilities for that reason alone, in the sense that the [Bank] would not be justified in applying a kind of temporary embargo on the facilities for reasons of its own. Although the ease with which the [Bank] allowed [Dombo] to exceed considerably the credit limit officially in force provides food for thought, it can be explained by the negotiations between the parties, which came to light during the proceedings, concerning the establishment of a substantially higher credit limit, in which - as was also common ground between the