Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 38


     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  One needs to look at the previous answer.  I do
     3        not want to go back to that, my Lord.  As I say, it may not
     4        in the end matter very much.  My Lord, in the end, what
     5        matters, perhaps, your Lordship may think, is this, whether
     6        the interests of justice require that Ms. Hovi should be
     7        recalled and that Mr. Bone should be allowed to give
     8        evidence.
     9
    10        Your Lordship posed a question to Ms. Steel this morning
    11        which I noticed she did not answer, which was this, whether
    12        the recall of Ms. Hovi for further cross-examination and
    13        the calling of Mr. Bone to give evidence-in-chief would
    14        cause the Defendants any injustice.
    15
    16        She did not answer that question; instead she launched into
    17        a misconceived and ill-based attack on the Plaintiffs' and
    18        Jarretts' bona fides.  If I may answer the question, it is
    19        plain that it would not cause the Defendants any injustice
    20        at all for this reason, that if Ms. Hovi was telling the
    21        truth the first time around, then, presumably, she can very
    22        easily deal with what Mr. Bone now says.
    23
    24        The second limb, my Lord, of this is, would the Plaintiffs
    25        suffer injustice if Ms. Hovi were not recalled and Mr. Bone
    26        were not allowed to give evidence?  My Lord, in our
    27        submission, the answer to that is plainly that the
    28        Plaintiffs would suffer that injustice because your
    29        Lordship would then be left with Ms. Hovi's evidence as it
    30        is mostly uncontradicted even by me in cross-examination
    31        because I did not have the time to find the material to
    32        contradict her.
    33
    34        One can see from Mr. Bone's statement what my
    35        cross-examination might have been like and would be like on
    36        a future occasion if I had been given the opportunity to
    37        obtain the necessary instructions.
    38
    39        My Lord, I leave this subject with the observation (which
    40        perhaps your Lordship will think it cheap but,
    41        nevertheless, I make it, and I make it which I would not
    42        have done if we had been in chambers) that the Defendants'
    43        desperation to prevent Ms. Hovi's recall and Mr. Bone
    44        giving evidence betrays, we would say, once and for all
    45        that their repeated assertion that in this case they only
    46        want to get at the truth as a complete sham.  My Lord,
    47        I pass finally to the question of discovery.
    48
    49   MS. STEEL:  Sorry, can you just pause a minute because I am
    50        trying to make a note and I cannot actually keep up? 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, Mr. Rampton? 
    53
    54   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I pass now to the final matter which
    55        I have to deal with which is the Defendants' discovery
    56        which we say is due on counterclaim.  I endorse what
    57        Mr. Atkinson said at your Lordship's prompting, namely,
    58        that obviously both sides must make a proper list.
    59
    60        The only outstanding aspect of that is this, that your

Prev Next Index