Whyatt CJ:

The facts and arguments sufficiently appear from the judgment.

This motion by the plaintiffs, Yee Chang & Co. Ltd. against the defendants, the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, for judgment for the sum of $5,379.21 and costs raises important questions relating to the enforcement of a compromise in a pending suit and to the duty of solicitors, as officers of the Court, to conduct litigation with due propriety.

On 20 August 1957 the plaintiffs issued a writ against the defendants claiming damages for breach of contract in and about the carriage of bales of rubber by two of their vessels, the SS Camphuys and the SS Van Riemsdijk. On 18 December 1957 the plaintiffs delivered a statement of claim in which they quantified their damage at $11,953.80 and on 11 January 1958 the defendants delivered a defence denying liability for the whole amount of the claim. However on 6 March 1958 the defendants' solicitors enquired from the plaintiffs' solicitors whether the plaintiffs would be prepared to accept 300f their claim in settlement, each side paying its own costs. The plaintiffs' solicitors wrote to the defendants' solicitors on 10 March, stating that their clients d