Chief Justice the Hon. Austin Ward has been asked to resolve a disagreement between parties in the case over an undertaking he requested to cover potential damages.

The Chief Justice has asked for the undertaking in case it is found that Televest Ltd. and its owner Telecheck Holdings Ltd. should not have been placed in provisional liquidation in December.

But Appleby, Spurling and Kempe, the lawyers for joint provisional liquidators Kempe & Whittle Ltd., and Julian Hall, the lawyer for three Televest directors fighting petitions to wind the companies up, are at odds over what the judge's order means.

It is understood the disagreement relates to the size of the undertaking and who should make it.

The matter is expected to be heard next week, but a date had not been set yesterday.

A $3.8-million claim from the receiver of a bankrupt Channel Islands company started a chain reaction which led to the apparent failure of Televest, the provisional liquidators have said.

More than 500 Bermudians who bought $8.3 million worth of preferred shares in Televest saw redemption of their shares halted.

Use of Telecheck's cheque authorisation service for merchants and Signature and Travel Card credit cards was also stopped.

ROYAL VISIT FORCES BUDGET DAY TO BE MOVED UP TAX Royal Visit forces Budget Day to be moved up The Royal Visit has moved up Budget Day by two days, to Valentine's Day.

The Queen does not arrive in Bermuda until March 8. But in order to accommodate Budget Day, the Opposition response, and 42 hours of debate before then, the Budget must be delivered on Monday, February 14, Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul told The Royal Gazette .

The debate would be concluded on March 7, he said yesterday.

Government Budgets used to be delivered on Fridays. But for the last three years, Budget Day was Wednesday.

The change was made to add an extra day of Budget debate because of the increasing size and complexity of the financial document, Dr. Saul said.

Moving the Budget ahead two days would create "no problem'' for Government, he said.

"We had the Budget speech all finished on Christmas Eve,'' he said. Dr. Saul "polished it up'' about a week before he left for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on January 25.

No "substantive'' changes were made, he said.

After the February 14 Budget Day, the Opposition Reply to the Budget is set for February 21.

Detailed debate begins on February 23, continuing on February 25, February 28, March 2, March 4, and March 7.