have major implications for Bermuda's growing trust business.

At the centre of the litigation that lasted three days this week is billion-dollar pharmaceuticals and health care giant, Bermuda-based Corange Ltd., which reported sales of $3.2 billion in 1992.

Corange is the privately-owned, holding company for Boehringer Mannheim and the DePuy Group of Companies which operate globally with some 21,000 employees.

In an action that is now expected to end today with a decision from Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Meerabux, three British Queens Counsel have been debating whether the protector of two Bermuda trusts which own nearly 30 percent of the shares in Corange Ltd. acted properly in trying to move the trust from The Bermuda Trust Company Limited (BTCL) to Grosvenor Trust Company Limited.

The complex case was pushed through the court calendar because the Corange board meets a week today and the key issue of who will exercise the voting rights of the 29.3 percent block of shares must be decided by then.

One of the actions was only taken out on April 25, for the trusts which were registered here in a revised form in September 1990.

The protector, German lawyer Dr. Jurgen von Knieriem, is seeking to effect the transfer of the shares in the company by moving the two trusts to Grosvenor.

Bermuda Trust has challenged the move.

Dr. von Knieriem is represented by lawyers, Mr. Nicholas Patten QC and Mr. Ian Kawaley who are seeking to have the courts force the transfer of the trusts.

The challenge came in a related action from lawyer Mr. Andrew Martin of Mello, Hollis, Jones & Martin and Mr. Robert Walker QC on behalf of BTCL, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Bermuda, against Dr. von Knieriem, Mr.

Engelhorn, his wife, his son and four daughters. The trusts were set up using the company stock with the family members as the beneficiaries.

BTCL argued that Dr. von Knieriem may have acted to change the trustees to use the votes to help keep Mr. Engelhorn on the board. That meeting was originally scheduled for April 6, but was postponed until May 20.

During the proceedings, it emerged that Mrs. Anne Engelhorn was no longer with Mr. Engelhorn and there was a possibility of divorce. The discussion of related personal matters came during the submissions of the third British QC, Mr. David Lowe, who was assisted by Mr. Delroy Duncan.

The court heard how at a family meeting in Switzerland, Mr. Engelhorn confronted his son, Mr. Kurt Alexander Engelhorn, and told him that he felt betrayed that his son was not supporting him. The court heard how a family friend told the son that he could be cut out of the father's will.

The ramifications of the case go well beyond the personal difficulties of the wealthy family, though.

Observers said the case would be watched closely as a test of Bermuda as a domicile for trusts. Lawyers spent time examining the 1975 Trustee Act.

Even Mr. Justice Meerabux remarked during the proceedings that he was endeavouring to give counsel all the time they needed because: "This is a very important case for Bermuda.''