Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 50


     
     1        obviously the person whose identity was not revealed in the
     2        letter and also there might be others as well, we do not
     3        know because, as far as we can tell, the Plaintiffs have
     4        not made all inquiries.
     5
     6        The point is that with an interrogatory, although the
     7        information may not be directly in their possession, they
     8        have got an obligation to make all diligent inquiries
     9        relating to it.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Not of people who are not employed by them
    12        surely.
    13
    14   MS. STEEL:  They were employed by them.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL: They are not now.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL: They employed them to carry out certain acts.
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes, but we are talking about now being the
    21        time the interrogatory is opposed.  That is the relevant
    22        time.
    23
    24   MR. MORRIS:  They would have seen the reports.  McDonald's have
    25        said, and the solicitors have said, that they saw reports
    26        and which agents were identified, if not by names but by
    27        some kind of identification, so even if they are incapable
    28        of finding out the name of their own agents that were
    29        hired, then they would have identification details so we
    30        know if it is agent X or agent Y that cropped up at
    31        relevant times.  That would relate to point 2 specifically,
    32        if it was obviously a name on a report.
    33
    34        Can I say that the evidence has already been given by Mr.
    35        Nicholson that there were a number of agents, I think he
    36        said about four, who remained in the group after the
    37        service of the writs and from my inadequate look at the
    38        material that we have already got from their agents, it
    39        does appear to be that only one of them stayed on after the
    40        writs were served, so there could in fact be another 2 or 3
    41        agents which have not been named or identified in some
    42        way.  In fact, there must be at the present way it stands,
    43        so, we are entitled to know the names and at what times
    44        McDonald's had agents hired to infiltrate
    45        London Greenpeace.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:  If I can just carry on:  Mr. Rampton said that
    48        because these two witnesses are ours, we know who they are,
    49        we can ask them ourselves.  Well, actually Michelle Hooker
    50        is not our witness.  At the moment, only Frances Tiller 
    51        is.  Obviously I have asked her what meetings she 
    52        attended.  She cannot remember but she does know that notes 
    53        were supplied of the meetings and that the Plaintiffs were
    54        getting regular reports, as we have, in any event, heard
    55        from Mr. Nicholson, from the agencies as to what was going
    56        on at those meetings.  Therefore, they have got the
    57        information in their possession about which meetings, which
    58        agents attended, and how many agents attended, and,
    59        therefore, they can quite easily answer an interrogatory in
    60        relation to that.  Whereas because all we have is memories,

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