Court Appearance in the United States of America
By Mandar Gadre
I got an
opportunity to appear in the Court of Santa clara in United States of America
last year in the month of Mar 2016. I could not write about this since the
verdict of the case was not given. Recently the verdict has been given and now
I can discuss about this matter.
However as a part
of secrecy I am not allowed to disclose the name of my client. So I am presenting
this case as the case of Mr X from Pune
This valuations
were required by the Respondent ( my client ) in the divorce case filed by the
Complainant ( Wife )
1.
Mr. X
contacted me through his father who reside in Pune and he ( father ) briefed me
about the properties.
2.
Mr X
contacted me over the telephone and requested me to carry out the valuation of
certain lands in Pune.
3.
On
request of Mr X I visited 3 land properties in the presence of his father in
the year 2015
4.
The
properties were as follows
·
N A
plot in Mann village
·
N A
plot in pirangut
·
Farm
house plot in Mugawade.
5.
The
valuations were carried out and subsequently the reports were submitted in the
court. The Complainant had also furnished valuations from her side.
6.
Respondents
counsel pressed for out of court settlement but it failed, hence the respondent
decided to go ahead with proceedings of the case. The court asked the
Respondent to testify the Valuer in the court in connection with the valuation
reports submitted.
7.
I was
summoned by the Santa Clara Court in California in mid dec 2015 to appear in
the Month of Mar 2016. I accepted the summons and sent them a scanned copy as
per their rules by email to the court.
8.
I
applied for the Visa and it was granted by the US Embassy .
9.
Again
we carried out fresh valuation and prepared the reports, but the court did not
allow the fresh reports and the old valuations reports were referred since they
were already part of the case. The fresh valuation was carried out to state
that there is no change in the status of the lands in terms of development etc.
10. I reached USA and had an initial meeting
with my client’s counsel. After the first meeting I realized that the Counsel
was not aware of the many facts about the 7/12 extract, Index II etc. I spent a
good time explaining how the procedure is carried out for registration of
documents and the procedure till 7/12 extract in created. The Counsel had prepared
a set of questions to be asked to me in the court about my report, but I
realized they had to be reframed in a better manner.
11. I gave the Counsel a series of questions in
such a way that my entire reports would be read in the court in the form of
question and answers.
12. The day of the trial
a. In USA a case is given either full day or a
half day for a case. Our case had been allotted a full day for the proceedings.
b. The day began with the argument between the
Complainants Counsels and Respondents Counsel over the argument that the Expert
Witness is not qualified to appear in this case. Our Counsel convinced the
Judge that a fair chance should be given the witness to present himself. The
Judge agreed and said she will decide whether the Expert Witness is competent
to appear in the court. Till this time I
was out of the court in the respondents counsel’s room.
13. The Court room in USA have a very good
setup. All the courts are Air conditioned. The Judge is located at a higher
place and the Respondents and Complainants have table and chairs to sit. A
police officer is present to maintain the law and order. The witness box has a
table and chair with audio system. The witness box is properly secured by balustrade.
There are few chairs for those who want to witness the proceedings.
14. I was summoned to appear before the court
and I took the oath by raising of hand which is a standard procedure in USA. The
Judge then questioned me over my CV and the original registration certificates
and qualification of education were produced before the court which the court
accepted and accepted me as an Expert Witness in this case.
15. Our Counsel then started asking me
questions one by one in respect to all the report , the questions were like
· Did you visit the property ?
· Who accompanied you ?
· Did you do market enquiry ?
· Why the ready reckoner rates in mentioned ?
· Did you check the actual sale instances ?
· And many more questions like this.
b. I had furnished my reports with due
diligence and the sale instance were mentioned in the reports. My entire report
was read in the form of question and answers before the court. The proceedings
were recorded and noted. It was difficult for the court to understand Indian
way of English speaking so couple of time spellings were narrated to clear the
confusion and mistakes while recording.
c. The question and answer session lasted over
45 min where most of the question which the complainants counsel would have
asked in his cross examination were dealt carefully which proved to be a good
strategy for further proceeding.
d. The Complainants Counsel took my cross for
more than 2 hours. I am jotting down some part of the proceedings of the cross
in the form of questions and answers so that the readers will understand about
the cross examination.
Q – Did you visit the property
on xyz date ?
A – Yes
Q- Who accompanied you ?
A – Father of the respondent
Q – Are you competent enough to
carry out such valuations ?
A – To which my counsel ( RC
)objected since I was admitted as an expert advice, The Court asked the
Complainant’s Counsel ( CC ) to withdraw the question.
Q – How many valuations you have
carried out for divorce cases?
A- I have not kept track of it and RC objected
saying that the Valuer has to carry out the valuation of properties and he has
nothing to do with the result of the divorce case. The court accepted the
reasoning the question was declined.
Q – You have not done valuation
but just multiplied reckoner rate by area of land.
A – No , I have not multiplied
reckoner rate and the area of land. Please read my report carefully.
Q – How have you arrived at the
rate of land ?
A – Based on the actual sales
recorded and the demand and supply in this area.
Q – Have you measured the land
?
A – No measurement of land was
no possible but I have referred the registration document and the demarcation
plan which was produced to me for the reference.
Q – Is the land levelled ?
A – No the land is sloping in
one direction.
Q – You have multiplied the
reckoner rate and area to arrive at the value ( 2nd time same
question )
A – No I have not was my
answer.
This same question was asked 9
times to which finally the Judge intervened and told the Complainant Counsel
that the witness has answered this question with the same answer and you can
not ask the same question again and again.
In this manner the cross was
proceeding. The Complainant Counsel was trying to agitate me by asking same
type of questions.
The lady Judge was completely
impartial and had very good understanding of what was happening during the
cross exmination. The Counsel was trying to deviate and delay the proceedings
with the sole intention that the cross examination would remain incomplete and
I would have had to appear again on the next date.
The Judge strictly clarified
that the Cross examination should be complete today in any case.
Finally the Counsel produced a web
based advertisements which were sourced from websites like 99acres.com,
magicbricks etc. The counsel produced advertisement for sale of N A plots in
the same project and said that this is a sale instance.
So I asked the Counsel again
and again “ do you say that this is a sale instance “ to which the Counsel said
“ Yes “. I requested the court to record this statement.
I then asked permission of the
court to produce the actual sale instance printout which I had collected from
the igrmaharashtra web site. The court had a look at it and even the Complainant’s
counsel.
I explained the court that the
Counsel is referring the advertisements and not sale instances. The sale
instance has date of registration.
Registration number and other things.
Out of the three properties
valued one land was a Fram house land. I was able to justify the valuation
based on the sale instances and the explanation of difference between the N A
land and the Farm land and it potential.
16. My testimony was necessary since the
valuation we had furnished was of ` 70 Lakhs for the farm house land and the
figure in the mind of the counsel and the complainant was ` 522 Lakhs i.e a
difference of @ 695000 USD. As per the state law in USA in case of divorce the
division has to be 50% to each of the party. So if I had not attended the
court, the respondent might have had to pay the complainant 50% of 695000 USD
which is a big sum in USA.
17. Result of this appearance was that after
six months the verdict was given by the Court and the parties were either
requested to do the out of court settlement or approach the Indian Judiciary
system since the Respondents and the Complainants were not citizen of USA( they
were green card holders ).
18. My appearance in the court helped my
counsel to save a huge amount of money and the divorce was granted on the same
day of the trial.
Mandar A Gadre
F 9480
FIV
Pune
9423585989
