Day 309 - 03 Dec 96 - Page 71


     
     1        so we were hoping to have or at least until Monday to do
     2        that.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You have to look at the timetable.  Having
     5        sat down and thought about it, I am convinced that we can
     6        now finish the hearing of this case, by which I mean the
     7        hearing subject to me reserving judgment and giving
     8        judgment in due course, before the end of this term.
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  I hope long before that.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think there is any risk of failing
    13        to do that now.  The question is, which days we sit and
    14        which we do not to achieve that objective.  What I want you
    15        to tell me tomorrow, so that when I break off I can decide
    16        for how long and when things should be done, is how long
    17        you are suggesting that you will need to deal with the
    18        law.  We will sit tomorrow morning.  It looks as if we may
    19        well then not sit tomorrow afternoon and Thursday.  We will
    20        sit on Friday and before the end of Friday I will have
    21        asked Mr. Rampton what I want to ask about his submissions
    22        and anything I want to ask him about points of law.
    23
    24        The essential then, it seems to me, is for you, during next
    25        week, not only to have delivered your submissions on points
    26        of law so that I can read and digest them and Mr. Rampton
    27        and Mr. Atkinson and Mrs. Brinley-Codd can look at them,
    28        but for you to have said anything that you want to say on
    29        the law, and, if I think it fair that you should be able to
    30        address me in reply to Mr. Rampton on the counterclaim, to
    31        have dealt with that next week as well.
    32
    33        That will then leave the situation that there is nothing
    34        more to be done before I reserve judgment, save that you
    35        have the option (if you wish to take it) of delivering any
    36        further written references on the issues of fact by one
    37        o'clock on Wednesday.  So, I will wait and see if I receive
    38        any of those.  No doubt Mr. Rampton, Mr. Atkinson and
    39        Mrs. Brinley-Codd will.  If Mr. Glenn gets a telephone call
    40        from Mrs. Brinley-Codd saying we would like half a day or
    41        an hour, or whatever it is, to say something about those,
    42        we will find it either some time preferably on the Thursday
    43        rather than the Friday.
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  Can I just say, in terms of a personal
    46        matter, I want to go on holiday on the Friday, the 20th.
    47        I have made a provisional booking to that effect.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest is, you go ahead and make your
    50        booking, if you wish, because if Mr. Rampton did want to 
    51        say something about any written submissions you put in on 
    52        matters of fact, he would almost certainly be able to do it 
    53        on the Thursday and, if he did not, Ms. Steel would just
    54        have to hold the fort for both of you on the Friday.  There
    55        would not be any question of you coming back to what
    56        Mr. Rampton said, anyway.  It would just be that one of you
    57        would be present in court.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:  If we made sure that any references, whatever, that
    60        we wanted to hand in were in by the, I do not know, the

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