Case No. 0LS79020

79. In respect of the allegations of breach of duty, I received evidence from two expert witnesses: for the Trust, Dr David Aldridge, B.Eng, Eng.D.; for TTPM, Mr John Hinchliffe, M.Sc, FRICS, FCIArb.80. Dr Aldridge prepared two reports, the first of which, dated 1st April 2011, addressed issues concerning breach of duty. He has since 2005 been a director of Acutus Programme Management Ltd, a consultancy providing expert services in project and programme management, delay and disruption analysis and related areas. He has worked in those areas since 1997, when he completed an engineering doctorate in environmental technology. I shall have more to say about his expertise later in this judgment.81. Mr Hinchliffe also produced two reports; his first report, dated 1st April 2011, deals with matters relating to breach of duty, but he also addresses some relevant matters in sections 5 and 6 of his second report, dated 22nd December 2011. He has been the managing director of Cambridge Projects Ltd, a multi-disciplinary project management consultancy, since 1994 and a director of WT Partnership, an international firm of project managers and cost managers, since 2005. He has practised as a project manager for more than twenty years.82. So far as concerns matters relevant to the question of breach of duty, the experts were able to agree only on two points of substance, namely (1) that in the circumstances of this case TTPM was not to be criticised for advising commencement of the works under a letter of intent and (2) that, if TTPM gave no advice to the Trust in respect of the application of letters of intent and their advantages and disadvantages to the Trust, it thereby fell short of the standard to be expected of a reasonably competent project manager. (This is an interpretative paraphrase of the conclusion in paragraph 6 (a) of the joint statement dated 21st January 2011.) All other relevant matters, including importantly the question what substantive advice TTPM should have given and what action it should have taken, remained in issue between them. The experts also disagreed as to the likely result of any further efforts that TTPM might have made to procure an executed contract, but I shall deal with their views on that question of causation separately.