Day 110 - 29 Mar 95 - Page 23


     
     1        in the meantime.  I would be surprised if there is any
     2        disagreement with that from Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris  ---
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:  No objection.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- because it is a course we have taken with
     7        regard to other witnesses without mishap in the past.  In
     8        fact, they might welcome it.
     9
    10        I will leave that to you, Mr. Rampton, I think.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  I am grateful to your Lordship.  I would have to
    13        discuss it with Mr. Brinley-Codd, obviously, because, as I
    14        say, my principal concern is the convenience of witnesses
    15        already scheduled to give evidence during May and June.  It
    16        might be, I do not know, that it would appeal to your
    17        Lordship to have those witnesses where they are and then to
    18        come to publication in July.  I am saying that off the top
    19        of my head without having thought about it, but that would
    20        be another possibility.
    21
    22        At the moment I have no witnesses scheduled for the last
    23        week of June and the whole of July for the reason that I do
    24        not know at the moment what witnesses I need to call.
    25        I will not know that until I know which of the Defendants'
    26        witnesses are coming to court.
    27
    28   MS. STEEL:  I just wanted to say something about this business
    29        about the witnesses now having been scheduled.  When we
    30        asked about this previously, we asked the Plaintiffs to
    31        give a draft to us for our comments before it was handed to
    32        you, and I think you indicated that they should do that.
    33        But, in actual fact, we were not given this until it had
    34        already also gone to you.  So we did not have a chance to
    35        have any input into it.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  There is no reason why you should not do
    38        it now.  I do not think the fact that it was given to me
    39        meant that you were being shut off from making your
    40        contribution.  It is helpful to me to see what the
    41        Plaintiffs have in mind.  You can make your suggestions to
    42        their legal representatives about it and if there is an
    43        issue between you at the end of the day I can seek to
    44        mediate on it.  I purposely used the word "mediate" because
    45        I am not at the moment, at any rate, putting myself in a
    46        position where I order that who should call which witnesses
    47        next.
    48
    49        So, if your understanding had been the moment I am given a
    50        sheet of paper like that with things on it, any further 
    51        consultation between you is implicitly barred, I think that 
    52        is wrong. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  In reality, it becomes tablets of stone very
    55        quickly.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may be that once it is there and a
    58        tentative arrangement is made, there is a reluctance to
    59        withdraw from it, but you can still voice, first of all,
    60        I suggest to Mrs. Brinley-Codd and then, if there is no

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