Day 251 - 17 May 96 - Page 35


     
     1        matter very much is to tempt fate, so far as the outcome of
     2        the case is concerned, I mean.
     3
     4        My problem is really is whether I would need to deal with
     5        that proposition, it not having been a part of the case
     6        really until this evidence was given today.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is what concerned me, because it seems
     9        to me that is tantamount to saying the Defendants cannot
    10        rely on it because it has not been pleaded.  The rationale
    11        then continuing, because it has not been pleaded the Judge
    12        having refused leave to amend to allege it, the Plaintiff's
    13        have not dealt with it.
    14
    15   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, that may be.  It is something I would not
    16        like to answer now.  I would certainly not want to be
    17        obstructive for the sake of it, but I do want to think
    18        about whether it puts me in a difficulty that matters.  If
    19        it does, then I should have to make an argument that,
    20        whether it is an amendment on paper or in one's head, it
    21        should be disallowed and that part of the case disallowed
    22        simply on the grounds of real prejudice.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  My purpose in raising it now is not to
    25        persuade anyone to one view or another, but so that you can
    26        think about it and so that Miss Steel and Mr. Morris can
    27        think about it as well.  What I suggest you do, Miss Steel
    28        and Mr. Morris, is look at it sooner rather than later, but
    29        not at this minute, look at the ruling I made on 25th July
    30        1995.
    31
    32   MR. MORRIS:  I remember it very clearly, yes.  If I could just
    33        say that the statements of, for example Susanna Hecks and
    34        Sue Branford were served, for example Sue Branford's
    35        statement was served on 25th February, so it has
    36        effectively part of our case from  then.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  My point is this; it is one thing to say
    39        anything in the statements is taken to be pleaded, but
    40        where I have expressly refused you leave to amend to make
    41        an allegation, I do not think that can be so.
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:  It goes further than that.  What struck me today,
    44        which was unfortunate really, because the Defendants have
    45        been in touch with Miss Branford for a long time now, I
    46        mean this is one of the things I may have to rely on, I am
    47        afraid, is that at last one of Mr. Morris' and Miss Steel's
    48        late pigeons has come home to roost.  Miss Branford said
    49        today for the first time, nowhere else in her statement, it
    50        was in answer to a question from your Lordship, that she 
    51        understood what I call gallery forest, whatever you like, 
    52        along the Araguaia River for example, to be exactly the 
    53        same stuff as one finds up in the Amazon Basin.  That is a
    54        proposition which I have never had to face before.  I may
    55        well want to go and get some evidence oh the effect that
    56        that is rubbish, if it is rubbish.
    57
    58   MS. STEEL:   Can I just say, in terms of Mr. Rampton being able
    59        to deal with it, the matters about beef coming from
    60        cattle-reared on ex rain forest land, he has had that

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