Day 073 - 13 Jan 95 - Page 50
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I think we should do, if I may say so
3 (and I am just putting what I said before in another form
4 of words), you have to be prepared to make what you may
5 see, but I do not see, as some sacrifice as to some of the
6 questions you want to ask in order to keep moving through
7 the case. But, in your own interests so that you can
8 grapple with what you have got, when you prepare your
9 cross-examination, I do not think you ought to be thinking
10 of every question which you could conceivably ask a witness
11 which might be relevant to the case. You have got to do
12 some sifting of what you think is most important or you
13 will miss some important points on the route to taking
14 every point you might take.
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16 What I would like to do is get through Mr. Siddique,
17 Mr. Ashworth and Mr. McIntyre in the first three days of
18 next week, restart with Mr. Walker on Wednesday 25th. If
19 you spend about a day of the weekend on preparation, you
20 have five days preparation for Mr. Walker. We must then
21 try to get through the Plaintiffs' rearing and slaughter
22 and food poisoning witnesses, which would include
23 Mr. Chambers and also Mr. Ashley Bowes, Mr. Fernando Gomez
24 Gonzales who has to come back and Mr. Wignall (i.e. the
25 three witnesses mentioned in Mrs. Brinley-Codd's letter of
26 6th January) by the end of the week ending Friday 17th
27 February, if we can.
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29 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that would be March.
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31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, I think it is February. It is the Friday
32 before the half-term week.
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34 MR. RAMPTON: If your Lordship is proposing that we should try
35 to finish the Plaintiffs' rearing and slaughter and food
36 hygiene witnesses by Friday, 17th February, that is frankly
37 impossible.
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39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is not realistic?
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41 MR. RAMPTON: It is not realistic. Friday 3rd March might be a
42 possibility or even Friday 10th because it is very likely
43 I shall have to call the slaughterhouse in South West,
44 Jarret, as well and somehow Mr. Chambers has to be fitted
45 in somewhere else. Mr. Ashley Bowes, the pig person, has
46 to be fitted in somewhere. Mr. Morris wants the 20th to
47 24th for his child's half term which I resolutely resist
48 for all the usual reasons -- he is not the only one who has
49 family responsibilities and it is about time he understood
50 that, in my respectful submission.
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52 Then I have to bring Dr. Gomez Gonzales back. He has been
53 advised by your Lordship that he should allow a week. The
54 week which is most convenient for him is Monday, 27th.
55 That means it is unlikely if I have to bring Mr. Chambers
56 back at a later date, that we shall have the Plaintiffs'
57 evidence on these topics before Friday 10th, assuming that
58 Mr. Morris does not get his half term.
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60 MR. MORRIS: I take extreme objection to Mr. Rampton's continual
