Day 171 - 11 Oct 95 - Page 49


     
     1        employment evidence apart from the two Canadians, who are
     2        coming at the beginning of November.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We have Mr. Whittle.
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Whittle, my Lord, I would guess that,
     7        including cross-examination, he cannot take more -- he
     8        certainly cannot last a morning; there is no way, because
     9        his statement will now either be read or taken as read.  We
    10        have not been served with any additional particulars;
    11        therefore, there will not be any questions, apart from a
    12        couple of questions which your Lordship has called
    13        "settling questions" in chief.  That will be the end of
    14        him.  It will then fall to me to cross-examine him which, I
    15        have to say, I cannot think will last more than a few
    16        minutes, three-quarters of an hour maybe, and I would
    17        anticipate that Mr. Whittle would be free to go at about
    18        half past 11 or quarter to 12.  Thereafter, it looks as
    19        though we have two and a half or more days blank.
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We have "meaning" on Friday.
    22
    23   MR. RAMPTON:  We have "meaning" on Friday, right.  That means we
    24        have the rest of Wednesday and the whole of Thursday blank
    25        at the moment.  I must say, though I say nothing about the
    26        end of this week and I understand Ms. Steel has been ill
    27        and that creates a difficulty and so on and so forth ----
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We are in agreement about that.
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  That is water under the bridge, but it being the
    32        case that we are going to lose Friday of this week as well,
    33        I am very unhappy about only being offered Mr. Whittle for
    34        next week.  I do not believe that it is proper, after all
    35        this time and we have just finished a two month vacation
    36        and when Mr. Morris has been on notice that we intended to
    37        finish our employment evidence almost exactly at the time
    38        that we shall, it is not proper or right that he should not
    39        be able to schedule more than a quarter or half a day's
    40        witness for the whole of those two days.  Goodness knows
    41        what sort of omen it creates for the future and given that
    42        -- we said on 7th August that we expected to finish our
    43        employment evidence about the 9th.  That is more or less
    44        what we have achieved.  I am frankly astonished that
    45        Mr. Whittle is all that is offered for next week.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I would like you to do, Mr. Morris, is
    48        to think about how we can fill more time on Wednesday and
    49        Thursday of next week.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  I was going to try and schedule someone for 
    52        Thursday and I have not had any success yet, but I am going 
    53        to be working on it.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would like you to do your very best for two
    56        reasons:  The first is that I am anxious to avoid losing a
    57        day next week if we can avoid it, bearing in mind that we
    58        are going to lose three -- I say "lose" -- we are going to
    59        have three preparation days in the following week in any
    60        event because that is the half term week.  That is the

Prev Next Index