Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 47
1 four weeks before Christmas that your Lordship indicates
2 would be convenient to your Lordship and to Mr. Cesca.
3
4 MS. STEEL: We might want to fix witnesses when we have agreed
5 to your Canadian ones, but we are trying to be helpful and
6 it might be considerate if you did the same.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us all stay calm. The dates which are
9 going through my mind, does he have to start on Monday?
10
11 MR. RAMPTON: I would much rather he started on a Monday. For
12 all Mr. Morris' implied threats to filibuster, I would much
13 rather that he started on a Monday because I am confident
14 with proper cross-examination he ought to be finished in a
15 week. It may very well that once he has given evidence a
16 number of the Defendants; expert, so-called, will have
17 second thoughts about giving evidence at all, I know not.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: Maybe if you re-read our expert reports you may not
20 want to call any witnesses yourself. Could I say that if
21 it is going to be before Christmas, the advantage of the
22 week of the 11th is that we then have the overrun of the
23 incomplete week the following week because the court
24 finishes early which gives Mr. Cesca a free run into the
25 following week which will be the two last days, if needed.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am contemplating either Monday 11th or
28 Wednesday 6th which is why I asked, is there a specific
29 advantage in him coming on a Monday?
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: No, not except that it would be nice for him not
32 to have a spend a weekend in England unless he absolutely
33 has to, I dare say. May we make enquiries?
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He did not tell you what his view about that
36 would be?
37
38 MR. RAMPTON: No, he likes England, I can tell your Lordship
39 that.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If I was given the option of starting
42 evidence on Wednesday and having the weekend in the middle
43 of New York or starting on the following Monday and coming
44 straight home I might ----
45
46 MR. RAMPTON: He is one of those perhaps not so rare people
47 nowadays who does not give himself options of that kind.
48 He is so busy that it may be that he would rather not
49 sacrifice an enjoyable weekend to leisure time in London.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If I say the 11th, I am going to say that all
52 his evidence must be finished by Thursday 21st December at
53 the latest. That is in no way an attempt to limit
54 Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris in their cross-examination. It
55 gives, in my view, plenty of time and gives a target anyway
56 to aim at.
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there anything which either of you want to
