Day 147 - 04 Jul 95 - Page 35
1 to be saying that, but I see what is there.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: I meant what I said. I did not mean it in the way
4 that Mr. Morris is taking it. I did mean this -- and it
5 has been my observation throughout this case -- that if
6 they can get anybody else -- and, in particular, McDonald's
7 and, in particular, their solicitors -- to do something for
8 them, they will try jolly hard to ensure that that other
9 person -----
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If that is so, I see nothing offensive in it,
12 because I think the Defendants have their time cut out
13 keeping up acting on behalf of themselves, and that is
14 reason enough in itself. However that may be, I will
15 extend it to ten to three, since every time I suggest an
16 adjournment we seem to go on for an extra five minutes.
17 But you let Mr. Riley know when are you ready to come back,
18 and if it is not by ten to three, give him a good weather
19 forecast. But I would like the court cleared, because
20 I propose to stay in here alone.
21
22 (Short Adjournment)
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Was there anything more you wanted to say,
25 Ms. Steel?
26
27 MS. STEEL: I just wanted to answer a couple of things
28 Mr. Rampton said when he was making his speech, or whatever
29 you want to call it. Firstly, he said twice that we had
30 admitted distributing distorted information, which
31 obviously we have not admitted and it is completely
32 untrue. We are not remotely interested in distributing
33 false information, unlike the Plaintiffs through their
34 adverts.
35
36 The other thing is, I think he said something about the
37 basis of giving us the transcripts was that there was some
38 kind of agreement about it. As I recall, there was not.
39 I do not recall any agreement whatsoever about the
40 provision of transcripts. The agreement concerning the use
41 of CaseView was just that if one party was going to have
42 it, everybody else would have it. It was agreed on that
43 basis.
44
45 We have said that we are not distributing transcripts to
46 anyone other than witnesses and legal advisers.
47 Mr. Rampton is now going much further than that. He does
48 not even want us to be able to show transcripts, to give
49 copies of transcripts to our witnesses. He expects us to
50 call them over from all over the world to comment on what
51 has been said in court, which of course would cost a lot of
52 money and be completely impractical.
53
54 The other thing I want to say with regard to that is that
55 I actually recall, I think it was when Mr. Crawford was in
56 the witness box, Mr. Rampton asking him whether or not we
57 had given him copies of evidence of previous witnesses. So
58 he obviously expected us to have provided them with
59 copies. I think that that is a normal use of transcripts,
60 and there is no reason why it should not apply to us as
