Day 081 - 31 Jan 95 - Page 60
1 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: And it all goes in, so it is all evidence.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: It has to be the whole statement; not just a
6 section?
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It effectively has. You could in theory give
9 a Civil Evidence Act notice in relation to parts of it just
10 by defining the parts and the date and the time, but you
11 have no answer if Mr. Rampton then gave a Civil Evidence
12 Act notice in respect of all it; it would all go in.
13 I have not heard argument on the matter but that is what
14 I -- it is not a situation, I have to say, I have had
15 before. That is what I surmise the position is.
16
17 MS. STEEL: We can hear Mr. Rampton saying that it seems to be
18 the obvious solution. Is he saying that if we serve a
19 Civil Evidence Act he will not oppose it?
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: It is very likely. I am not giving any
22 undertaking, no, as this seems to be a fairly
23 straightforward and open discussion, is has seemed to me
24 for some considerable time that the sensible thing to do,
25 because we want to save time in the case, because in large
26 measure it appears that Mr. North and Mr. Clark are in
27 total agreement about the conditions in McDonald's
28 restaurants, the different ones they saw admittedly, the
29 sensible thing would be for the Defendants to serve a Civil
30 Evidence Act notice on his statement and leave it at that.
31 Whether I would think it right to inconvenience him and
32 bring him down from Scotland by serving a counter notice,
33 I think is unlikely. I would add, my Lord, I do not think
34 it is sensible that anybody should be compelled to make a
35 decision about this matter tonight.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. I only wanted to discuss it tonight
38 because, of course, Mr. Clark has probably got places he
39 would far rather be than sitting in court.
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: I have not asked him but I dare say he has
42 somewhere to stay tonight because he was listed to give
43 evidence, I think, tomorrow.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The other aspect, since we are considering
46 all, if that is not a satisfactory conclusion I would ask
47 Mr. Clark -- the words you gave were that he has no wish to
48 talk to the Defendants, well, there you are. If you have
49 provided a statement for one party, even though as an
50 expert witness the idea is impartiality, you may find it
51 embarrassing to talk to the other side. You also said
52 Mr. Clark had no wish to give evidence and what I would ask
53 him is, well, it may well be he has no wish but if
54 Mr. Morris said, "I would like Mr. Clark to go into the
55 witness box, will he do that" without some -----
56
57 MR. RAMPTON: I cannot answer for him. He is as independent
58 minded as most of the people from North of the border are.
59 I did not suggest to him in any way what his answers should
60 be. I do not know even know the reasons why he will not
