Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 27


     
     1   MR. RAMPTON:  I am grateful.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I cannot say whether the Defendants felt
     4        inconvenienced by it, but it was an objection you were
     5        entitled to take, and my recollection is that I stepped in
     6        and suggested the way the question could be asked.  I do
     7        remember occasions when you interrupted out of anticipation
     8        of the difficulty which I did not think had yet, in fact,
     9        actually arisen and which did not arise, in fact; but that
    10        just happens in litigation, as far as I am concerned.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  It is bound to.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  So, if any of the Plaintiffs' witnesses, or our
    15        witnesses, are experts, or can be deemed to be experts, or
    16        have been asked by Mr. Rampton, for example, about their
    17        opinion on certain things, then we should be able to put to
    18        them an expert report.
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You can put to them an opinion expressed in
    21        an expert report, and if no objection is taken by the other
    22        side it can be a convenient way of doing it to put the
    23        whole report before them.  But if an objection is taken to
    24        the report, then we have to have an argument like this and
    25        go back to Grassroot principles.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  Thus far, there has been no objection to either the
    28        Preston or the Oregon Civil Evidence Act notices.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You have got several days more days to go,
    31        I am afraid.
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:  I do not remember when we served it.
    34
    35   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I do not know -- and it is quite
    36        important -- Oregon I cannot serve a counter notice; that
    37        may be subject to other forms of objection.  It may be
    38        subject to none, I do no know.  But it is important that
    39        I know when the Preston Civil Evidence Act notice, I having
    40        waived my rights under the rules to have a formal notice
    41        served, when it should be said by your Lordship to have
    42        been deemed to have been served.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I certainly cannot remember when.  Can you
    45        remember when you first said you wanted it on?  If you
    46        remember the witness you first wanted to put it to, that
    47        will probably isolate it.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  If it is Monday, then that is all right.  There is
    50        plenty of time for us to serve a counter notice. 
    51        Meanwhile, of course, it remains, as I submitted at the 
    52        beginning of this morning, in suspension. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  I think the Plaintiffs should have to make a
    55        decision in a shorter time in the circumstances of this
    56        case.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I cannot abbreviate the rules.  Do you think
    59        you put a notice on before Monday?
    60

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