Day 280 - 17 Jul 96 - Page 33
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I have.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: Which I think was given us to on Friday. It
5 purports to do two things. One is to respond to Mr.
6 Morganti's fourth statement, and to some lesser extent his
7 fifth statement, but largely speaking what it does is to
8 provide a commentary on the first statement of Mr. Morganti
9 which I identified as the places in Goias where the cattle
10 were collected.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
13
14 MR. RAMPTON: He provided a list. That fourth statement of Mr.
15 Morganti was served on the 10th May, 1996. The other thing
16 that this statement purports to do in large part is to
17 corroborate the oral evidence of Miss Bramford, who gave
18 evidence on the 17th May, and your Lordship will remember
19 that she, when giving her evidence from the witness box,
20 gave a good deal of evidence that was not foreshadowed in
21 her witness statement. Without any immediate objection
22 from me, and probably in response to what Mr. Morganti had
23 said some days earlier in his fourth statement about the
24 location of collection points in Goias.
25
26 We are now, I hope, coming very close to the
27 portcullis which will prevent any further evidence of
28 substance being given in this case. I find therefore, and
29 we find therefore, that this latest statement from
30 Professor Hecht leaves us in a totally impossible
31 position. We would obviously like the opportunity to
32 respond to it. I would like, if this case were limitless
33 in its duration, to send it to Brazil and get Mr. Morganti,
34 and in all probability the Brazilian Governor, to respond
35 to it. I do not believe that your Lordship is going to
36 allow me to do that. If I could do it before the beginning
37 of October, I do not know, it is winter in Brazil now so I
38 do not know if they are on holiday or not, but I would do
39 so, but I do not believe for a moment your Lordship will
40 let me do that. It plainly does, or might be thought to,
41 require some kind of a response from people in Brazil. The
42 most likely candidate, I think, would be the Brazilian
43 Governor, the Ministry of Agriculture.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does it not respond to Senor Morganti's fifth
46 statement?
47
48 MR. RAMPTON: To a very limited extent, my Lord, yes. From
49 paragraph 7. But I think I am right in saying that Mr.
50 Morganti's fifth statement was served in the middle of
51 June, last month, responded to what Miss Bramford had said
52 in the witness box as to the nature of the ranches in the
53 regions about which she proposed, and this process is, in
54 theory, endless. One can conduct a game of electronic
55 ping-pong across the Atlantic -- I will not say until the
56 cows come home because that might be thought
57 inappropriate. But suppose I then go off and persuade your
58 Lordship that I should be allowed to go off and serve this
59 statement contradicting this latest statement from
60 Professor Hecht and I serve it some time in September, the
