The Governor's office in Bermuda has stopped looking for a replacement judge for the protracted legal battle between the Thyssen family, The Royal Gazette has learned.

And while Government House would not comment on the matter, sources close to the Governor said last night that the search had been halted while the different sides of the feuding family seek a settlement with meetings between Zurich and London taking place during the summer.

The source said: "We were advised by the Chief Justice that the parties had asked for a pause in court appearances. And you cannot keep somebody [a judge on hold indefinitely."

And an article in the magazine section of the popular Spanish newspaper El Pais quotes one of the lawyers for Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza as saying the parties are working on a settlement - the first on-the-record statement about a possible agreement.

The feud between father and son which had been raging in the Supreme Court over a fortune worth $2.7 billion had been halted after the judge dramatically quit seven months ago.

The Royal Gazette has previously reported an out-of-court settlement is currently on the table and being looked at by all sides and that the Deputy Governor Tim Gurney had said the case would not be back in a Bermuda court until September. But as that date has been and gone, all parties are silent on what is happening behind the scenes.

The Supreme Court case was left hanging in March when the presiding judge, Dennis Mitchell, quit over a pay row - a year and a half into the case, leaving the Attorney General and Governor's office to find a replacement judge for the complex legal wrangle. An announcement about a new judge was expected to be made in June, but there has been no official statement about who will be appointed.

Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, is suing his eldest son Georg for the $2.7 billion family fortune. The 80-year-old baron claims his son owes him $232 million with arrears and loss of value.

The trial itself has been hugely expensive and has been raging since October 1999.

A team of 32 lawyers from both England and Bermuda had been working on the case around the clock for a year on a half in the Supreme Court in a case which has cost an estimated $100 million, or $600,000 a week.

There was speculation when Justice Mitchell quit that the trial would have to re-start or move to London.

But at the beginning of June it was believed a top London judge, Sir Gavin Lightman, was about to take over the trial and hear the remaining case in Bermuda.

At the time it was believed he was poised to sign contracts in June but this has not occurred.

Justice Lightman is believed to be partly the driving force behind the deal to settle what would without a doubt be a lengthy battle once it resumes - it took the Baron's lawyers over a year to deliver their opening remarks.

Justice Mitchell quit after Governor Masefield declined to renew his three-year contract after demands for more money were made by the judge.

The parties involved have talked of suing the Government, the Governor and Justice Mitchell among others for the failure of the case.

The El Pais article quotes Jaime Rotondo, a lawyer for the Baron, as saying: "Yes. A deal is being worked out, but has not been reached yet. There has been intense and constant negotiations in London and Zurich. We could be close to something."

The case

The Baron, now 81, signed over the family business (and fortune) to a continuity trust created in 1983 which immediately made his son Georg, now 50, the principal beneficiary.

The father is claiming in court the trust and his son owe him $232 million in arrears with inflation and loss of value and wants to wrest control of the empire back.

The trial originally started in October 1999 after two years of legal wrangles over what evidence could and could not be submitted.

The trial had been stopped for legal clarifications for over six months before Christmas, and resumed in January.

The opening statements for the Baron's lawyer's took 15 months to complete.

There are 121,959 documents entered so far into evidence and there is an average of 600 pages of transcripts from the case each week.