WILMINGTON, DEL. -- Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler AG was put on hold yesterday after his lawyers claimed the company suddenly gave them 61 pages of handwritten documents that could bolster their case.

Judge Joseph Farnan Jr. said he was ordering a recess in the trial while a special master for the court holds a hearing to determine "how we got in this mess." It's unclear when the special master -- an official appointed by a court for a task such as fact-finding -- will hold the hearing or how long it will take.

As the court opened yesterday morning, Mr. Kerkorian's attorney Terry Christensen told Judge Farnan that they had received the documents about midnight Monday and should have received them well in advance of the trial, now in its third week.

"We are shocked," Mr. Christensen said. "None of us have ever seen this before. . . . These defendants have defaulted on their obligation to the court."

As a result, Mr. Christensen asked the court for a default judgment in Mr. Kerkorian's favour.

Mr. Kerkorian is suing DaimlerChrysler for more than $1-billion (U.S.), claiming that Daimler-Benz falsely characterized the 1998 combination as a merger of equals when in reality Daimler-Benz was acquiring Chrysler Corp.

Mr. Kerkorian, whose Tracinda Corp. was the largest Chrysler shareholder at the time, claims that by purposely mischaracterizing the deal, Daimler-Benz avoided paying him an acquisition fee of up to 62 per cent on his shares when the companies merged.

DaimlerChrysler maintains that Mr. Kerkorian supported the deal and grew disgruntled only when his shares lost value.

The notes handed over around midnight Monday contradict testimony from Chrysler witnesses who have testified in the trial, Mr. Christensen said.

The notes turned over by former Chrysler chief financial officer Gary Valade -- who now is purchasing manager for DaimlerChrysler -- refer to negotiations between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler. Mr. Valade had been scheduled to testify yesterday. It was not immediately clear who had written the notes, which included phrases such as "sell out for profit," "why didn't we buy?" and "senior management sold out."

After finding that the documents were relevant to previous testimony in the case, Judge Farnan ordered them sealed and said he hoped the special master "can start almost immediately. . . . Then, I'll take up what has to be done to complete this trial."

DaimlerChrysler lawyer Tom Allingham told the judge it appeared the notes were overlooked in the huge volume of documents.