The lawyer for the five former Bermuda Fire & Marine Co. Ltd. directors accused of fraud is considering making a no case submission, claiming that the evidence put forward by the company's liquidator doesn't add up to very much.

Lawyer Robin Potts told the court yesterday that he was thinking of asking that the liquidator's expert witnesses, due to be heard in January, be brought to testify before the defendants bring theirs to the stand.

Under an agreement made before the civil case started the parties in the case decided that the expert witnesses would be heard after all regular witnesses had appeared.

Mr. Potts claimed that after hearing all the evidence from documents and three witnesses presented by the liquidator so far, there was no case to be answered about whether his clients knew or suspected Bermuda Fire was insolvent when BF&M Ltd. was created in 1991.

If he makes such a submission, Supreme Court Puisne Judge will have to decide whether on the balance of probabilities, the standard of evidence required for a civil case, the defence has a case to answer to.

No case submissions are common in civil and criminal cases.

Keith White, the former manager of Bermuda Fire's operations until 1989, is due to testify today. He is the last regular witness for the liquidator.

Mr. White, an ACE Ltd. executive, is testifying under subpoena and is expected to be grilled about what he knew about reserving for pollution losses in the London market, and bad debt from reinsurers.

Bermuda Fire liquidator Ernst & Young plans on calling four expert witnesses, including an actuary and an accountant in an attempt to show that if the company had set millions more aside for expected pollution claims and for bad debt it would have been insolvent.

Gabriel Moss, lawyer for the liquidator, yesterday continued submitting documentary evidence discovered recently on microfilm of former Bermuda Fire chairman Charles Collis' involvement at Lloyd's of London.

Mr. Moss claimed that the documents show that Mr. Collis, who died last year, was aware of the huge pollution losses hitting the London market. As chairman of Bermuda Fire he should then have known that the company should have made such reserves for incurred but not reported losses.

During the 1980s and into the 1990s Mr. Collis had up to $300,000 invested in Lloyd's syndicates and regularly received reports about his investment. His letters to those managing his account showed he was "keenly'' aware of the mounting pollution losses hitting the market, Mr. Moss alleged.

The case continues today.

Keith White BUSINESS BUC