stress level soared and a medical condition she had worsened after she moved her shop to the Imperial Hotel building.

Mrs. Hayden is claiming some $500,000 from the owners of the Church Street building La Femme moved to in 1984 saying the company failed to maintain it properly.

Most of the money is for alleged lost profits during and after the move to larger premises.

Among Mrs. Hayden's complaints are that the plumbing and air conditioning systems were faulty and the premises, which she rented for some $4,000 a month, was infested by rats.

Dr. Burton Butterfield told of Mrs. Hayden's poor health due to the problems associated with the move when the civil action continued in Supreme Court yesterday after a one-month adjournment.

Also testifying on her behalf was Imperial owner Mr. Rolf Wittich's former secretary who said she took a number of phone calls from other tenants with complaints.

In previous testimony, chartered accountant Mr. Julian Ashby said that in his opinion the problems Mrs. Hayden ran into after switching La Femme's premises led to a serious sales slump.

Her men's underwear store, Hayden's, remained next door at 16 Church Street.

But yesterday, defence witness, accountant Ms Renata Milczarek, testified it appeared from the business' financial statements that it was making a loss before the move.

Further, she said, she had a problem with the fact Mr. Ashby had been comparing figures before the move, which were combined men's and women's underwear sales, to sales after the move when La Femme's and Hayden's were financially separated.

Financial statements for the year ending June 1984 showed the business incurred a net loss of roughly $5,000, she said.

Based on that, Ms Milczarek said it was not good business sense for Mrs.

Hayden to have moved to a larger premises with higher overheads.

"If she had come to me I would have advised her to hold off the expansion until the business was generating a profit,'' she said.

Defence lawyer Mr. David Kessaram has questioned Mr. Ashby's small business knowledge.

In 1985, the first year sales from La Femme and Hayden's were separated, it appeared sales from the women's lingerie side were fluctuating while men's underwear sales remained steady, she testified.

She claimed 22 percent of all Mrs. Hayden's sales were attributable to the men's side.