DEBELAK BROS., INC. v. Mille

In this case, all testimony was taken and proposed findings of fact prepared by a court-appointed referee. Particularly in a time of heavy work loads and backlogs of pending cases facing trial courts, this statutorily authorized 1 use of fact-finding referees is one available resource in increasing the number of lawsuits that can be handled in a particular court. The procedure involved should be encouraged, not discouraged. However, in this case, as they had every right to do in order to conserve costs of litigation the attorneys stipulated that proceedings before the referee would not be…