The fifth day of businessman Harold Darrell's racial discrimination hearing against 17 Bank of Bermuda directors was cut short yesterday when damp courtroom conditions sent the complainant into an asthma fit serious enough to send him home.

Mr. Darrell, who took the stand on Monday and again yesterday morning, has been forced to leave the hearing several times since the case began a week ago because of what was described as a "serious asthma condition" triggered by conditions in the Booth Hall courtroom. On Monday he complained from the stand that mould in the room was making it difficult for him to breathe.

Yesterday he was forced to leave the witness stand. His lawyer, Anthony Cottle, subsequently told the tribunal he had been informed that chest pains forced Mr. Darrell's exit.

Tribunal chairman Paul King made the call to adjourn the matter until today, saying it "troubled" him to continue the hearing in Mr. Darrell's absence.

Mr. Darrell's human rights complaint is being heard by a specially appointed three-person tribunal nearly five years after he first lodged his complaint with the Human Rights Commission in October, 2000. He claims a breach of confidentiality complaint to the bank was never properly investigated or resolved because he and his witnesses are black.

Yesterday's delay ? one of several setbacks during the hearing initially set down to last eight days ? put paid to hopes the hearing will wind up, as planned, on Friday.

Some 20 witnesses are expected to testify during the hearing, but five days in the first witness, Mr. Darrell, is still under cross examination.

Mr. King raised the testy subject of timing after Mr. Darrell's departure. "It looks likely that we will not finish by this week," he told lawyers, several of whom are committed to other trials in the months ahead. He expected the hearing would, after Friday, have to adjourn until mid- to late January in order to accommodate scheduling conflicts.

When the hearing does reconvene, hopes will be for another courtroom. "This building is enough to kill anyone," said Saul Froomkin, lawyer for the former bank chief executive officer Henry Smith, one of the 17 respondents, at the close of yesterday's hearing.

From the start of the hearing, Mr. King approved a shirtsleeve dress code. The courtroom is poorly ventilated and without working air conditioning, prompting daily gripes about the hot, humid conditions.

Up to 20 people a day are affected, including the three-member tribunal, six lawyers, stenographers and a public gallery of supporters and a half-dozen bank directors, including ex-CEO Mr. Smith, who are respondents in the matter. Bermuda Bar Association president Robin Mayor told there were regular complaints about Booth Hall. "It is not satisfactory, but is all we've got at the moment," she said, with the building housing two temporary courtrooms that continue to be used because the number of judges on the Bermuda court roster has increased.

Chief Justice Richard Ground was off the Island and could not be reached for comment. A Supreme Court Registry official said a complaint had been lodged by one of the people involved in the hearing and the problems were being looked at. The courtrooms, housed in a former Salvation Army meeting hall on Court Street, were initially opened for two marathon court cases dating back to the late 1990s ? creditors taking collapsed Bermuda Fire & Marine to court, and a high-profile court battle between feuding members of the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza family.