Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 7

Summary: - The court hearing the merits. Considers the dispute in light of the evidence and documents submitted to it. It is not obliged to direct the parties to submit evidence supporting their defence or to draw their attention to the requirements of that defence. Documents and grounds of defence submitted by one party during the hearing of the case, whether in the presence or absence of the other party, are considered part of the case papers, open for examination and capable of being invoked against that party without the need for service. The court may rely upon them in its ruling so long as they have been attached to the case file. The reason: a party’s obligation to follow up its case, what is submitted therein and the defences raised therein. Rule: It is established—in the jurisprudence of this Court—that what is settled according to the accepted principles of evidence is that a party, whether claimant or defendant, bears the burden of adducing evidence of the fact it alleges; that the court hearing the merits considers the dispute only in light of the evidence and documents submitted to it and is not obliged to direct the parties to submit evidence supporting their defence or to draw their attention to the requirements of that defence; and that the documents and grounds of defence submitted by one party during the hearing of the case and the following of its progress, whether in the presence or absence of the other party, are considered part of the case papers on which the court may rely in its ruling so long as they have been attached to the case file. In that event, they are considered open for examination and may be invoked against the other party without the need to serve that party with them, because each party is presumed to follow up its case and acquaint itself with the defences raised and the papers submitted therein. Whenever the court decides, within the limits of its discretion, to adopt the report of the expert appointed in the case because it is convinced of the correctness of its reasons, it is not thereafter obliged to respond separately to the challenges directed against it, since its adoption of the report on the basis of its reasons indicates that it found nothing in those challenges deserving a response beyond what the report contained.