A London High Court judge yesterday called off a trial due to begin in a drawn-out investor lawsuit against Royal Bank of Scotland over its 2008 rights issue that would have called disgraced former CEO Fred Goodwin to testify.

Judge Robert Hildyard said the minority of rebel shareholders, who have not wanted to accept an out-of-court settlement, could apply for the trial to resume if they could prove they had sufficient funding by the end of July.

“In a difficult and novel situation, the process of bringing an end is not as easy as might be thought,” Hildyard told the court.

Shareholders have alleged the bank and its top executives misled them during a £12 billion cash call launched just before RBS’s near collapse and record bank bailout in 2008. They lost around 80 per cent of their investments.

RBS has offered the RBoS Shareholder Action group 82 pence per share, or around £200 million, to drop the case. A lawyer for the group told the court earlier that 87 per cent of the shareholder group had settled or intended to agree to the out-of-court deal.