Day 117 - 27 Apr 95 - Page 38
1 quite a large number of witness statements, and in relation
2 to those whom you have not named either yesterday or today,
3 the position is obviously you have a statement from him at
4 sometime, but there is absolutely no good reason to suppose
5 at the moment that they are actually going to come to call
6 evidence.
7
8 MR. MORRIS: They have made statements for that purpose, so the
9 assumption, we would submit, is that they are going to come
10 to give evidence. The question is an administrative one
11 of -----
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You may have to persuade me that I can
14 fairly, in making such directions as I have to as to the
15 fair and expeditious disposal of this case, make that
16 assumption. I have been quite prepared to accept what you
17 say to me. I am not for a moment suggesting that what you
18 have said is not absolutely candid about who has replied to
19 forms and whom you have actually spoken to on the phone.
20 Unless and until Mr. Rampton says that I should doubt what
21 you have said, I do not propose to do so for a moment, but
22 in relation to all the others we just have this situation
23 that they have not responded to the forms, if in fact they
24 have ever received them, and you have not spoken to them on
25 the phone. If you say, "Well, look, I want it a few more
26 days to try to ring a few more of them", well and good,
27 although time is running out all the time. A time must
28 come when I have to use my common sense and say, well look,
29 Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel in so far as she is participating
30 in this, have not had contact with these witnesses for a
31 very long time and there really is, therefore, no reason to
32 suppose they are actually going to come; nothing to do with
33 whether they have been willing to come or not, but merely
34 because they will not have been notified, "Come on this
35 day". A fortiori, they have not been subpoenaed. You have
36 had contact with them but they appeared to be dragging
37 their feet, for whatever reason, just that they thought it
38 was jolly inconvenient to come to London, you have not been
39 able to subpoena them.
40
41 If, for instance, I knew had you a subpoena with regard to
42 this witness or that witness and it had been served on this
43 witness or that witness, then again I would have ground for
44 assuming they were going to come. But anyone you have not
45 had a form from or made fairly recent telephone
46 communication from or served a subpoena on at the moment,
47 it seems to me it is only sensible to assume that they are
48 not going to be here.
49
50 So think on that. If that is correct, that the only
51 reasonable assumption is they are not going to be here,
52 then it is for Mr. Rampton to decide whether he wants to
53 call any evidence on that topic. If he decides not to call
54 any evidence on that topic, well, there we are. If it then
55 later appears that there is good ground to believe they are
56 going to come because you say, "Well, I have now got a form
57 back from X" or "I have spoken to X on the phone" or
58 "I have now managed to serve X with a subpoena" let us
59 know straightaway because then Mr. Rampton may be put in a
60 position where, rather than just waiting to see if they
