Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 16
1 going to make an application either that the Plaintiffs be
2 ordered to provide them for us or that the court pay for
3 them out of public funds -- we will come on to that -- we
4 believe if we do not have the transcripts, it will be
5 virtually impossible for us to continue this case on any
6 kind of practical level or on the basis of equality, of any
7 kind of equality, and if the case grinds to a halt, it is
8 certainly not what we want.
9
10 We are committed to fighting this case to the best of our
11 ability to the end. We believe that the Plaintiffs must
12 know (and if they did not know, they must now know, having
13 heard what we are saying) of the effect of us not having
14 transcripts. Therefore, of course, we are asking them to
15 support our application today that would result in us
16 getting transcripts, rather than see the trial increase in
17 length and cost, and the inequality becomes so manifest
18 that the trial will be an abuse of process to continue.
19
20 The court may feel an inference can be drawn that the
21 Plaintiffs are becoming disinterested in the action because
22 of the progress of the case and the effect of the case on
23 their Company.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That cannot be relevant to whether I have the
26 power to order the Plaintiffs to provide you with a
27 transcript or bar them from using one if you do not get
28 one, can it?
29
30 MR. MORRIS: But if they oppose this application, knowing the
31 effect of it on our conduct of the case -- we will come to
32 that.
33
34 To come to the specific, obviously, the court has an
35 inherent jurisdiction to ensure fairness.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are coming to your argument about my
38 powers now, are you?
39
40 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Look, we will take our five-minute break in a
43 moment, but do you have a copy of the ruling which I gave
44 on 4th July?
45
46 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you look at page 5, I summarised, I hope
49 accurately, what your four applications were with regard to
50 transcripts of the evidence. "The first is an application
51 for an order that McDonald's do provide them with daily
52 transcripts.
53
54 Secondly, they apply for me to make a provision from public
55 funds in order to purchase copies of the transcripts on
56 their behalf or to give them the funds for them to demand
57 and pay the charges for transcripts.
58
59 Thirdly, if they are unsuccessful on either of those first
60 two applications, they ask me to say that I should not have
