Day 080 - 30 Jan 95 - Page 61
1 call him, before Dr. North, have you not?
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: I know that, my Lord, but frankly -----
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not for a moment querying any decision
6 you may make. That is entirely a matter for you.
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8 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord. There is plenty of authority that in
9 certain circumstances your Lordship has the power to give
10 me leave to call rebutting evidence, if -- we ought not to
11 -- Mr. North departed it significantly from what is in his
12 witness statement.
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, if what might amount to new evidence, as
15 it were, came in.
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17 MR. RAMPTON: Exactly.
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19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
20
21 MR. MORRIS: We would have a right to call Mr. Clark, would we
22 not?
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24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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26 MR. MORRIS: If the Plaintiffs decided not to call him.
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28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. There is no property in witnesses.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: If we call him, the Plaintiffs will still have a
31 right to question him, would they?
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33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: They will be able to cross-examine, yes.
34
35 MS. STEEL: Is there some reason why Mr. Rampton does not want
36 to call him?
37
38 MR. RAMPTON: I do not want to waste time.
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40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not going to enquire into that. All
41 I can say, in my experience, is frequently parties do not
42 call witnesses, either factual or expert, who they have
43 there available to be called because the evidence has come
44 out in a way which makes them think that there is no point
45 in calling them. They may have other motives, I do not
46 know.
47
48 MS. STEEL: What would happen then if he did not call Mr. Clark
49 and then we decided not to call Mr. North?
50
51 MR. RAMPTON: Then there would be no case against McDonald's
52 Restaurants whatsoever.
53
54 MS. STEEL: That is not quite true, actually.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not prepared to argue about that now.
57 Mr. North is your witness. You can decide whether to call
58 him or not. You, for instance, said some time ago that you
59 were not going to call a witness. I did not enquire into
60 why that should be. I certainly did not draw -- it has not
