JUDGMENT

Chang Min Tat FJ (delivering the judgment of the Court):

In the course of hearing an urgent application for stay of execution, it occurred to us that a much more satisfactory course in the circumstances of this case would be to hear the substantive appeal itself and though this would not make available to us the undoubted advantages of knowing the learned Judge's grounds of decision, we formed the opinion that in an O. 14application which this proceeding was, nothing really turned on the credibility of witnesses and no real obstacle presented itself to the course we proposed to take. Apart from our inherent jurisdiction, r. 25 of the Federal Court (Civil Appeals) (Transitional) Rules, 1963 enables the appeal to be heard in such conditions.

By nine agreements in writing, called Equipment Leasing Agreements, all in identical form save as to the dates, the amounts and the objects of the leases, the respondents leased on various dates between 2 September 1975 and June 1976 certain very expensive machinery at substantial rentals, all in excess of $7,000 odd per month, for a period of 30 months commencing from the dates of the agreements. Ex facie, the agreements were exactly w