Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 37
1 back-to-back or, say, within a few days of each other so
2 that they are fresh in our memories.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: If your Lordship thought that at the end of the
5 day -- I do not use that in the cliche sense; I mean at the
6 end of today -- after hearing everything that everybody
7 says, what we could try to do, for example, is to put them
8 in after the Canadian witnesses and just before the
9 Defendants' French witnesses, for example. That is another
10 possibility. But then again, as I say, I do not know what
11 Sarah Ingliss' dates are so far as the Defendants are
12 concerned.
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: We were aware that there were difficulties and it
17 is fair to say we have difficulties as well. We did say to
18 the Plaintiffs that we could not really begin scheduling
19 our witnesses to any significant degree until we knew their
20 schedule. So, although certain witnesses we did ask to
21 look into coming on specific dates, some of those dates are
22 now open to question. So it is difficult for me to
23 actually say anything specific about particular days.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would like you to do is make some
26 suggestions. There are two possible approaches; that we
27 work very hard at trying to finish the bulk of the
28 employment witnesses on both sides, although I see no
29 reason why they should not to some extent intermingle.
30 I will not be unreceptive if they do intermingle, that is,
31 if you are in a position where you call some of yours
32 before Mr. Rampton calls some of the McDonald's ones,
33 I would be quite receptive to you saying: "All right, but
34 in so far as we have a specific area like Ireland or Canada
35 or France, even if we do intermingle, we would like the
36 Plaintiffs' witnesses in that specific area before our
37 witnesses in that specific area." Subject to some comment
38 of that sort, I do not see why you should not start calling
39 witnesses while there are still the Plaintiffs' witnesses
40 to come if you can get them here.
41
42 We can work very hard on that approach, or we can say
43 without any criticism on one side or another: "It is
44 proving to be too difficult to do that way", so we will
45 just let Mr. Rampton get on with calling the balance of his
46 witnesses in so far as you say: "Now we have managed to
47 organise so and so for these dates of our witnesses, can we
48 interpose them?" In other words, abandoning the process the
49 procedure we have followed so far of doing subject by
50 subject. I would rather stick to the procedure we have
51 followed so far, if it is possible to do it.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Yes, that would certainly be our position, because
54 it is a nightmare trying to cope with -----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We have all to contemplate the possibility
57 that it may not be possible to do it. That is the only
58 point I am making. What do you suggest then?
59
60 MR. MORRIS: My son's half term is in the week of the 23rd.
