Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 44


     
     1        information -- and I stress the word 'all' -- remains the
     2        subject of legal professional privilege, even if, which
     3        I do not know, but even if, it were relevant to the issues
     4        in this action.  We have not waived that privilege, and we
     5        do not intend to do so.
     6
     7        Therefore, so far as interrogatory 3 is concerned, any
     8        dates or information about any meetings which they are said
     9        to, or thought to, have attended remains undisclosable.
    10        And by 'undisclosable' I mean in answer to questions to Mr.
    11        Nicholson, if he should have an answer, in answer to
    12        interrogatories and in answer to an application for
    13        discovery.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You mean, even an answer as to the date and
    16        location of any meeting which, for instance, Frances Tiller
    17        or Michelle Hooker attended, that is privilege?
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would need you to elaborate your argument
    22        on that.
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  Well, I can do in due course but I need to do it
    25        by reference to the authorities.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  Since I have only just been given this handwritten
    30        piece of paper I do not have the authorities with me.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.
    33
    34   MR. RAMPTON:  Plainly, that is right, in our submission.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think we should try and deal with that on
    37        Thursday.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  I can do, certainly, yes.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The point I have in mind, you see, is further
    42        statements are being called for sooner rather than later
    43        from the Defendants, whether they be supplemental
    44        statements in relation to their own potential evidence or
    45        of any other witness they may wish to call, and it seems to
    46        me that they should do that all of a go and should have
    47        such information as I hold they are entitled to have in
    48        relation to other inquiry agents before they do that.
    49        Otherwise, it is all in dribs and drabs.
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:  I fully understands that.  I am not saying that 
    52        by, shall I say, an exercise of imagination one could not 
    53        think that a meeting or two attended by either of those two
    54        ladies might be relevant to the issues in the action.  It
    55        does not follow from that that I am obliged to disclose the
    56        dates, still less am I obliged to disclose any information
    57        relating to what took place on those occasions.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I am not for a moment suggesting you
    60        are wrong, because I make no bones about the fact it is

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