Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 04
1
2 MR. MORRIS: When your Lordship asked me the other day I said
3 conservatively three to four weeks for judge alone, it is
4 more likely three than four, judge alone, more likely six
5 and seven with a jury. I am not trying to exaggerate, that
6 is how it seems to me at the moment, Mr. Rampton, page 27,
7 on 21st December 1993.
8
9 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, my Lord. I think I ought to intervene there
10 to remind your Lordship that that was at a stage when most
11 of the defence had been struck out.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Most of the defence. Mr. Rampton seems to be
14 wildly exaggerating. A seventh had been struck out. And
15 secondly, just on the subject of your ruling on the jury,
16 I can understand what you are saying. It seems to be a
17 double-edged interpretation where basically the concern was
18 the jury would not be able to understand ----
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not worry about it. My concern is this:
21 one, if not the complete reason, I cannot remember exactly
22 what I said, but one reason why I was concerned about the
23 jury understanding was not intellectual capacity, it was
24 they would not be able to take the papers away, they would
25 not read them in advance, they would not be able to sit at
26 home and read them.
27
28 It is not a question, as it has turned out, that this is
29 with the wisdom in hindsight of being able to take a few
30 off to another room in the Royal Courts of Justice. I am
31 sure we all know that the moment you take two bundles away
32 with you to do some work, it takes about three minutes flat
33 before you realise that you need another bundle which you
34 have not brought with you. You need 12 sets of bundles
35 with members of the jury scurrying backwards and forwards
36 to get them.
37
38 But all this has gone now. Whether the decision was right
39 or wrong, I made it and the Court of Appeal did not disturb
40 it. That is the position.
41
42 Now, having had that bit of skirmishing on the horizon a
43 few miles from the main battlefield, get yourself organised
44 and let us carry on with the important points.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: Yes. On the next matter, which will include the
47 meaning, bearing in mind the comments that were made
48 yesterday, that somebody -- we asked to check out Clerk &
49 Lindsell, which I believe is some standard text --
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is a text book on the law of tort.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Could not find any basis for refusing to
54 allow facts to support the comment that...
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Whoever it was should forget Clerk & Lindsell
57 and look at Duncan and Neil and Gatley, the main textbooks
58 on the law of defamation.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: And, I do not know, someone did -- I mean, our
