Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 18
1 to read every word of the minutes, but I would like you to
2 save me that time by identifying the part.
3
4 MS. STEEL: I do think the best course is to wait until we see
5 the other documents.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Before you make a positive application that
8 Mrs. Barnes is recalled, what you are saying is you should
9 have the further discovery which you have asked for?
10
11 MS. STEEL: Yes.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Can I say one last thing on these documents?
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
16
17 MR. MORRIS: Obviously, we are not happy at all with the
18 principle of blanking out. We recognise there has been a
19 judgment on this by a higher court, but I think there has
20 to be some limit; and, certainly, there is some power in
21 terms of a judge, to ensure that blanking out is not just a
22 means of concealing matters which should be in front of the
23 court.
24
25 It is not just whether the specific words go to an issue in
26 dispute in the case, but also the fact of whether something
27 is discussed at a meeting or not discussed at a meeting may
28 be relevant or can be relevant, whether or not the actual
29 content of the discussion goes to an issue in the case.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not forget, I am not making law in
32 relation to this.
33
34 MR. MORRIS: No. I understand that.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There has been a Court of Appeal decision
37 very recently which deals in some detail with the approach.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: Yes, but I think that the court did not say that --
40 as far as I understand the decision, the question is
41 whether we could show a reasonable belief that the words
42 that have been blanked out ---
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think ---
45
46 MR. MORRIS: -- are relevant.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- it is anything about what you believe,
49 quite frankly, and I think what you believe is not
50 relevant. I think it is whether there is a reason to
51 suppose that the discovering party's contention that there
52 is nothing relevant there is wrong. But I should really be
53 referred to the report, which I think so far is only in
54 The Times, in relation to that. It may have come into the
55 Weekly Law Reports or the All England Reports.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: The point I am trying to make is that it is not
58 just the actual words being relevant to an issue in
59 dispute; it is also whether on a document -- for example,
60 if there is a document about the Health and Safety Task
