Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 69


     
     1   MS. STEEL:   I know, but the point is I am not familiar with all
     2        the documents that are relevant.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I just cannot accept that by Tuesday morning
     5         -- I am giving you some latitude, anyway, because the
     6        alternative is to say that Mr. Nicholson follows directly
     7        upon Mr. Howes.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   I do not know.  I mean, it might seem that
    10        everything is going very slowly to you, but it is a great
    11        pressure to us.  We are trying to get everything organised,
    12        we are trying to get everything done in time, but I have
    13        kept saying that I wanted that week, the Whitsun week, to
    14        prepare for publication.  We did have to go ahead with Mr.
    15        Carroll and I was not ready for him, and there are some
    16        things that I found subsequently that I would probably want
    17        to ask him about.  The same things are going to arise with
    18        Mr. Nicholson.  I have not finished looking through the
    19        Plaintiffs' original list of documents.  I have been there
    20        twice and I did tell them I wanted to come back.  We are
    21        doing our best, but Mr. Nicholson in particular is a major
    22        witness.  He is an important one; he covers a lot of
    23        ground.  It is not a simple matter to just, sort of, have
    24        him thrown in at short notice and be ready to do it.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am going to start Mr. Nicholson on Tuesday
    27        morning.  I want you to ask as many questions as you can.
    28        If you come to a stage where you say you cannot ask him any
    29        more, you must be prepared to give me chapter and verse of
    30        what the topics are you have still got to cover and why you
    31        are not prepared to do it; because it is not of interest to
    32        me as to who prepared your submission on the application
    33        for leave to amend to alleged leave and licence which very
    34        considerably involves Mr. Nicholson, or potentially does
    35        so.  The fact is you spent a considerable amount of time --
    36        I am not saying it was a moment too long -- but a
    37        considerable amount of time laying out your argument on
    38        that.  You were clearly well prepared on it, whether with
    39        the help of someone else or not.
    40
    41        So far as the occasion when he says he saw you handing out
    42        the leaflet in question, there is no dispute you were there
    43        on the day, and you ought to be able to put to him any
    44        challenge (if there is one) as to what he says he saw you
    45        do.  We cannot go on losing too many days.  We have sat
    46        three days this week.  Monday was a public holiday.  We
    47        kept Wednesday free, presumably with some preparation in
    48        mind because Mr. Preston could not attend.  I did not say
    49        put Mr. Nicholson in then.  I am not saying put Mr. Preston
    50        in on Monday afternoon.  It is a day and a half probably 
    51        when he could have begun to give his evidence before 
    52        Tuesday morning.  But it is making a mockery of the theory 
    53        of a steadily proceeding case to say that he should not
    54        begin to give his further evidence on the morning of
    55        Tuesday, the 14th.
    56
    57   MS. STEEL:   Can I say, I do not think that it is making a
    58        mockery because -----
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is not for you to judge.  We will resume

Prev Next Index