Day 081 - 31 Jan 95 - Page 64
1 you are able, if Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris request you to go
2 into the witness box, I would personally be grateful
3 because we just get on with that element of the evidence
4 and then we carry on with the case. Do you understand?
5
6 MR. CLARK: Yes, my Lord.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But I will not say more than that. You take
9 your own counsel and that of any other person whose
10 judgment you respect. Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris will come
11 back at 10.30 in the morning. They will say whether they
12 want to call you. If they say "no", either because they do
13 not want your evidence or because they have decided to take
14 a route via a Civil Evidence Act Notice, which is a way in
15 which you can put witness statements in rather than calling
16 the actual person into the witness box, then you can get
17 the shuttle back. If they say they actually want to call
18 you into the witness box, I will ask you whether you are
19 prepared to go there and we will take it from there.
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, a couple of other things: Mr. Morris
22 mentioned some "other legal matters"; I have no idea what
23 he means by that. He should, please, or the pair of them
24 should, please, produce a list of what they want dealt
25 with. It is not, I would suggest, a good idea to take, as
26 it were, two days worth of legal argument. If it can all
27 be done on one day, including the BSE argument, so much the
28 better. That gives time for Mr. Morris to make a list of
29 the topics that he wants your Lordship to consider as well
30 as preparing for the argument, I hope on Friday.
31
32 My Lord, the other thing is we have now got, thanks to
33 Mr. Atkinson, the Further and Better Particulars of Defence
34 to counterclaim, pursuant to your Lordship's order. I will
35 hand up one, if I may.
36
37 MR. MORRIS: I may be remembering incorrectly but I believe
38 there is a deadline for documents as well. I cannot
39 remember. A deadline for, I might be wrong, but things
40 like the Costa Rica documents there was a deadline set.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest is you check through on that.
43 I know I picked 31st January as a date, I think, for more
44 than one thing, but check that through and see whether you
45 believe there to be anything outstanding by tomorrow
46 morning.
47
48 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, there are no doubt some administrative
49 matters which the Defendants have not attended to as well.
50 I think it is much best if we all go away and write down on
51 pieces of paper what we think needs attending to rather
52 than trying to search our memories now, in my respectful
53 submission.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. If you can be ready do deal with BSE as
56 soon as possible, I would be grateful. In fact, I do not
57 think the argument will be very long. If need be, it could
58 be we could deal with it, I would have hoped -- if we
59 cannot deal with it this week, I really hope we could deal
60 with it, perhaps, first thing on Monday morning in
