Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 26


     
     1        very quick thing:  On the question of the Operations Manual
     2        which was dealt with yesterday and you have to rule about
     3        what is happening about that, can we just point you to Ord.
     4        24 r. 12 where it says that you have the power to order any
     5        document to be brought to court and to decide what to do
     6        with those documents once they have been brought to court.
     7        Shall I read it out?
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  I read it this morning.  I am just
    10        reminding myself of the general structure of Ord. 24.
    11
    12   MR. MORRIS:  Right.  That, of course, could also apply to any
    13        blanked out documents.
    14
    15        There was the matter that was raised -- I do not know if
    16        there has been a ruling on it, well, there has not been a
    17        ruling on it, but whether you intend to rule on it or what
    18        you want to happen about it -- we have said that the
    19        Plaintiffs have included a privileged document in their
    20        counterclaim file.  If you remember, it was the document
    21        which we had, it was a letter that we sent to a potential
    22        witness with handwriting on it which somehow has become,
    23        according to the Plaintiffs, evidence of our circulation of
    24        same or similar matters to justify their defence to
    25        counterclaim.  But it is a clearly privileged document.
    26        The Plaintiffs said something -- I cannot remember but
    27        Mr. Rampton did respond somehow saying -----
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  My response was that I do not understand why he
    30        said that it is privileged.  It does not, on the face of
    31        it, appear to be anything of the kind.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  My recollection (which may be unsound) was
    34        that you raised it before, or Ms. Steel did, and
    35        Mr. Rampton said that it was not privileged.  The matter
    36        then went over for you to make an application for its
    37        return once you were prepared to do so, if you chose to do
    38        so.
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:   I actually think that we brought it -----
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you remember, we had some argument before
    43        about documents which might be privileged and whether they
    44        were disclosed in error, and there is some law on it?  As
    45        I understood it, the issues between you and Ms. Steel on
    46        the one side and McDonald's on the other is, first of all,
    47        whether any privilege attached to it and, secondly, whether
    48        the way in which it had got into McDonald's hands meant
    49        that that had been waived or gone by the board in some
    50        way.  There is some law on that.  Do you remember, we had 
    51        an argument in relation to the letters where eventually 
    52        Mr. Rampton said it was more trouble than it was worth and 
    53        did not pursue the matter?
    54
    55   MS. STEEL:   As I recall, the last time it was brought up, the
    56        Plaintiffs said that they would look into how it came into
    57        their possession and what they had to say about it being
    58        privileged.  I do not think we ever got a reply on that.
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  It is not up to me to make a case that it is not

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