of dollars in the hope a fellow multi-millionaire would pick up the tab.

Attorney Mr. Julian Hall was referring to about $4 million "out-of-pocket'' damages Mr. DeGroote is claiming from heiress Marion MacMillan in a bitter Supreme Court battle.

The fight between Mrs. MacMillan and Mr. DeGroote, a Canadian trucking tycoon, is over Perot's Island in Riddell's Bay.

Mrs. MacMillan agreed to sell the island to Mr. DeGroote for $8.5 million in 1990. But she backed out of the deal and now wants to create a counselling retreat there.

Mr. DeGroote has gone to court to get the island plus damages.

About half the $4 million claimed is a loss he says he will make on Evergreen, the South Shore mansion he bought for $6.5 million when the Perot's Island deal went sour.

He says that as a non-Bermudian, he will be forced to sell it if he wins the island.

Mr. DeGroote is also claiming for about $300,000 worth of improvements done to Evergreen.

Mr. Hall, one of Mrs. MacMillan's lawyers, told the court yesterday that almost all the damages claimed were avoidable losses.

Mr. DeGroote had been extravagant in the expectation that he would succeed in laying the bill at the feet of Mrs. MacMillan.

Earlier in the day Mr. Hall's colleague, Mr. Robin McMillan, continued an attack on law firm Appleby, Spurling and Kempe.

Mrs. MacMillan says the firm acted for her and for Mr. DeGroote in the Perot's Island deal, despite her instruction that they should only work for her.

The roles of AS&K lawyers Senator Jerome Dill, Mr. Chris Malley and Mr.

Richard Spurling have come under the spotlight.

Mr. McMillan told the court that Sen. Dill, given that he was not told of the overall picture, did the best he could.

"But it's not good enough to say one member of the firm did the best he could when the firm itself has indulged in an act of betrayal.'' The job of the law was to protect victimisation, Mr. McMillan said. The trustworthiness of Bermuda's lawyers was at stake in the case, he added.