Pure Beverages Ltd. v. Shanil Fernando – sllr 1997 volume 3 page 202

In the case between Pure Beverages Ltd. and Shanil Fernando, the court addressed the procedural issue of whether a legal question, specifically the issue of prescription, could be tried as a preliminary matter when a key factual element—the date of consumption of the allegedly contaminated Coca‑Cola—was actively disputed (either 12.06.1984 or 12.06.1994). It was held that a preliminary trial of a legal issue is inappropriate when determination of that issue is contingent upon an unresolved factual dispute. The findings established that the plaintiff’s introduction of a new date, to which the defendant did not object, amounted to abandonment of the previously pleaded date, with the defendant’s silence constituting acceptance. The decision reaffirmed the principle that the trial court retain