Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 46
1 statement of fact and what can be relied on and so on.
2
3 You will have two extra days of preparation on Wednesday,
4 tomorrow, and Thursday the 21st. You come back. All this
5 is with a view to you the more efficiently getting through
6 what you have to say on publication and counterclaim on
7 Friday and the first three days of next wee week. Quite
8 frankly, I think it would be better if, when you come back
9 on Friday morning but keeping yourselves strictly
10 disciplined, you start off by saying what you have to say,
11 if anything, in relation to the rest of employment. You
12 take your heart out at the beginning of the morning and if
13 you have something in note form, be it word processed or in
14 longhand, you can hand that in if you like. But, subject
15 to something extraordinary and unforeseen happening, I do
16 want to keep you to Wednesday, the 27th for finishing what
17 you have to say, apart from submissions of law. Do you
18 understand?
19
20 MS. STEEL: Yes. What day is the absolute last day of term?
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The last day of term is Friday, 20th
23 December. But experience teaches me that it is completely
24 unsound to work on the basis that we have up to 4 p.m. or
25 4.30 on such and such a day, especially when we are going
26 to break off for three weeks to finish because that leaves
27 no margin for error, misjudgment, someone not feeling well,
28 getting delayed, as Mr. Morris was for whatever reason this
29 morning.
30
31 I am not entirely surprised that you have asked for time
32 and I was originally contemplating that you might take
33 tomorrow for preparation. I have extended it by a day, but
34 I really think at this stage, and bearing in mind that the
35 publication evidence was heard relatively recently, that
36 you are in the thick of it yourselves, whether you accept
37 that you were actually there or not, you were in the thick
38 of whatever was or was not going on at the time.
39
40 The counterclaim matter is essentially very simple in my
41 mind. In so far as it depends upon what actually happened
42 as opposed to what you believed, you will have gone through
43 the issues of fact. You say the burden of proof switches,
44 but there we are. You have gone through the various topics
45 and you have acquainted me with the various documents. You
46 have cross-examined Mr. Preston as the embodiment of the
47 Company, as to what they were doing and what they had in
48 mind; Mr. Nicholson about how the counter campaign, as it
49 were, was planned, and I actually think two days is much
50 more than enough on counterclaim, but I am allowing it
51 anyway.
52
53 So I will extend the schedule I have set down to that
54 extent. You can have Wednesday and Thursday for
55 preparation. We will resume on Friday morning with up to
56 about half an hour on employment and you have then got
57 through until the end of Wednesday to deal, between you,
58 with publication as it affects each of you and the
59 counterclaim of each of you. Then I will go on to what
60 Mr. Rampton puts before me either orally or in writing.
