Day 153 - 12 Jul 95 - Page 54
1 procedures.
2
3 So far as I can understand, we are conducting the case as
4 effectively as the Plaintiffs, with their vast experience
5 and resources, and that the obligations should be as much
6 on the Plaintiffs, if not more -- especially in this case
7 where they are bringing a rebuttal witness, effectively --
8 to put the matters which they feel, they know, our
9 witnesses have already put on oath and on record and are
10 going to be -----
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am afraid I disagree with you about that.
13 It does not matter that the witness statement has not dealt
14 with an allegation which reflects on the witness. It does
15 not matter that the witness's evidence-in-chief has not
16 dealt with it.
17
18 If you have an allegation which you expect one of your
19 witnesses to make in due course with which the witness in
20 the witness box can deal, and especially if it reflects on
21 the witness's character, the normal procedure is that you
22 should put it.
23
24 You have just to accept from me that that is the proper
25 procedure. If you have been under a misunderstanding about
26 that, then you must understand the proper situation from
27 now on.
28
29 I am not -- and this is the third time at least I have said
30 this within the last quarter of an hour -- going to assume
31 because something is not put that you are abandoning it.
32 But what I have said to you, you must accept as the normal
33 procedure. If you have been under an illusion about what
34 the proper procedure is or if, from now on, knowing what
35 the proper procedure is, you have not put something and
36 Mr. Rampton says, "I really would like that put", in
37 effect, it is only fair to the witness to put it, then you
38 really must put it. If you do not, apart from anything
39 else, once Mr. Rampton has raised it, if you do not put it,
40 I will; and that means I am intervening in your
41 cross-examination. I know I have done that often enough,
42 I hope only to help. But I am intervening in your
43 cross-examination when you might well prefer to ask the
44 questions yourself, rather than have me asking them.
45
46 MS. STEEL: Can I just ask for clarification? If we put in a
47 witness statement and the Plaintiffs do not call a witness
48 to counter what has been said, then it is assumed that our
49 witness is telling the truth, unless they are completely
50 and utterly destroyed in the witness box?
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, not necessarily. You may call a witness
53 in relation to that -- I am not saying this will be so --
54 but you may call a witness and the Plaintiffs may not have
55 called a witness on that topic at all, and when I hear your
56 witness I may think that his or her evidence is so
57 improbable or contradictory within itself that I just
58 cannot accept it; and it would be exactly the same way
59 round. In fact, you have made comments to that effect when
60 Mr. Rampton has called witnesses from time to time. You
