SIR John Edmund Frederic Lindsay has enjoyed a distinguished, but rarely glamorous, legal career which is nearing its end as a senior judge of the High Court.

There was a brush with fame in the Catherine Zeta-Jones wedding photographs case but, in truth, much of that was concerned with arid legal discussion. It is hardly surprising then that the judge, faced yesterday with the choice of shipping a line-up of elderly Cuban witnesses to London or flying to Havana to hear them in person, chose the Caribbean option. Mr Justice Lindsay, 69, faced the decision in a case concerning the payment of composers’ royalties for the hugely succcessful Buena Vista Social Club album of Cuban music.

The High Court has been adjudicating in a dispute between an American music company and a Cuban state-owned concern over which should receive royalties from sales of the record — and video and DVD sales — in Britain. The Buena Vista Social Club became a worldwide hit in 1997 after Ry Cooder, the American guitarist and composer, tracked down veteran musicians in Havana and made a documentary film and album. Peer International Corporation, the US firm, went to court claiming that its copyright to songs dating back to the 1930s has been unlawfully taken over by the Cuban Government.

Editora Musical de Cuba defended itself by saying it was salvaging royalties from songs that had never earned a penny for their impoverished authors.

But the case ground to a halt after six days when videolink technology, by which witnesses were to give evidence from Cuba, proved to be of poor quality or broke down entirely.

The Cuban side suggested that the judge move to Havana to hear the witnesses, an application opposed by the US firm. The judge ruled that the court should move, temporarily, to Cuba in September.

The five composers are dead but have many heirs who could benefit from royalty payments.

Although the case concerns just 14 tracks, it could lead to a battle over EMC’s entire catalogue of 1,260 Cuban songs.

AN EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS’ CLUB

The Buena Vista Social Club takes its name from an old members-only club situated in the hills near the capital, Havana

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