Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 04
1 Mr. Rampton to make his case out, whatever. But I wanted
2 to point that out straightaway.
3
4 Can I just say something else, as well, which is that there
5 are a lot of references in this latest document which we
6 have just had to transcripts which we do not have, because
7 they are transcripts we have not yet been able to buy, and
8 some of them we will not get until after Christmas. I do
9 not know if the Plaintiffs want to rely on them or when we
10 are going to be able to get them, because obviously we
11 cannot check or anything.
12
13 MS. STEEL: They are in the "malice" section at the back; there
14 is a whole -- "the list of allegations made by the
15 Defendants enclosing (malice)" -- and they all refer to
16 transcripts which we have not yet got.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, I think the position, so far as that is
19 concerned, is that if, when you eventually get the
20 transcripts, you thought that there was something which was
21 absolutely wrong -- not just something which is a matter of
22 interpretation, because that is for me -- then you should
23 write to Mr. Glen, for my attention, pointing this out, and
24 I would take note of that. Only if I thought there was
25 something which required further argument would I ask you
26 and those who represent the Plaintiffs to come back.
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. I do not have anything to say about that.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The same would apply either way. The last
31 thing in the world I want to do is encourage a snowstorm of
32 letters commenting on references by one side or the other.
33 But you are always at liberty to do that.
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, the only thing I would say about that --
36 and I am sure it is implicit in what your Lordship has
37 said -- is that if the Defendants communicate with
38 your Lordship in that way (about which I make no comment at
39 all) we should have a copy of it.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Send a copy to Mrs. Brinley-Codd of any
42 communication with Mr. Glen.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: I will, if I may, just comment -- I want to say
45 one or two more things on different topics before
46 your Lordship's interrogation of me continues, but I
47 just want to say something about what Mr. Morris first
48 said. He is of course quite wrong. What he says in his
49 witness statement or in answer to his interrogatories, if
50 against interest, are admissible as being admissions
51 against interest; as, for example, the date when he first
52 joined London Greenpeace, or the number of meetings he
53 attended, or his presence at the 1989 anti-McDonald's fair.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If that is so, why is it not in
56 Ms. Bensilum's statement? The interrogatories are one
57 thing, but what about a witness statement of someone who
58 has not been called? He is only a witness.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: No. Mr. Morris is a party.
