Case No. HT-11-503

72.The problems with the invoices are compounded by the absence of any proper evidence as to whether or not they were paid. Of course, in a normal case, the court will usually be only too willing to give a claimant the benefit of the doubt on a topic like this, so that where, say, a contractor rendered 5 invoices and payment can be evidenced for 4 of them, a complaint that the fifth payment has not been evidenced is unlikely to find favour with the court. But this case is not normal in this respect either. I have set out, at paragraphs 27-31 above, the almost complete absence of any evidence of payment by Brit Inns in connection with the invoices. 73.This is not just a technical gap in the evidence. Because the invoices are inadequate, it is perfectly possible that some were subsumed by others, or became part of a separate and later invoice. Duplication of invoices, but not payment, in such circumstances is quite likely. The problems with adequacy and credibility mean that the court cannot, without more, assume that each and every claimed invoice was paid.