Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 43
1 We prepared our case on the basis of the pleadings as they
2 were.
3
4 Going on to paragraph 17, we would submit that to allow the
5 amendments now would be a manifest injustice to us, and
6 costs as a sanction against the Plaintiffs would not be an
7 effective sanction where the Plaintiffs have enormous
8 resources and an, apparently, bottomless purse. As
9 Woolf L.J. remarked in the case of Bower v. Maxwell,
10 8th May 1989, unreported -- you may remember this was a
11 case that Mr. Rampton has referred to on previous
12 occasions.
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
15
16 MS. STEEL: "The learned judge was making reference to the fact
17 in the context of the need to hold a balance between the
18 parties, recognising that if a person has immense wealth,
19 then the fact that he should be required to bear costs may
20 not have any impact upon him but may have an impact upon
21 the Plaintiff, who is faced with the increasing costs of
22 litigation brought about by the way the litigation has been
23 conducted".
24
25 We would submit that the costs of this amendment will not
26 have any impact on the Plaintiffs, but they will have an
27 impact on us, because we will have to go back and do more
28 preparation and, if necessary, recall witnesses and just
29 generally there will be more costs all around on our side.
30
31 This amendment being made at this stage is due to the
32 conduct of the Plaintiffs. The amendment could have been
33 made earlier before all this evidence was called,
34 preferably last year, in time to let us contact all our --
35 let us prepare the case properly before it even started.
36 But certainly it could have been amended before any
37 witnesses were called on this issue.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: I do not know if you want to refer to that quote
40 which was quoted? It was on page 13 of the Bower v.
41 Maxwell case which was brought up at an earlier -----
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I remember that.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: Do you still have a copy?
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I probably have it somewhere, yes.
48
49 MS. STEEL: We submit further that since the Plaintiffs have now
50 admitted our case on the links between diet and cancer and
51 heart disease in full, see their Notice of Admission and
52 the transcript of 13th October -- the transcript of
53 13th October, which is day 36, on page 10, lines 15 to 32,
54 Mr. Barnard said: "Without question, I think all sides
55 would agree that there is an association, a link, if you
56 will, between fat as well as other components of the diet,
57 fibre, a diet high-in-fat, high-in-sugar, high-in-salt,
58 low-in-fibre; there is a link, an association, with cancer
59 of the breast and colon. I guess we would all agree on
60 that." Mr. Rampton said: "We would all agree; I am not so
