Day 251 - 17 May 96 - Page 38


     
     1        agreement; I would not expect to get it in any
     2        circumstances.  I am asking for your Lordship's help and,
     3        if necessary, your formal leave to speak to Mr. Nicholson
     4         -- I am not going to say more than this -- about certain
     5        questions relating to the witnesses which I intend to call
     6        in the future on the issue of publication, to have his
     7        decision on certain questions relating to those witnesses.
     8        I say no more than that.
     9
    10        It does not in any sense directly impact (to use a horrid
    11        modern word) on the evidence he has presently given or will
    12        give in the future; but, plainly, since it is on the same
    13        general area of the case, I feel uncomfortable talking to
    14        him about it without your Lordship's leave.  I am not at
    15        all convinced that we will get to him next week, because
    16        not only is there Professor Naismith, there may well be Dr.
    17        Arnott as well.  In any event, some of these questions
    18        which I want to discuss with him -- I would have raised it
    19        at the end of the afternoon's hearing if we had had it
    20        anyway -- are of some urgency and do need to be dealt with
    21        sooner rather than later.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  What would you like to say about that?
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:   If it is just about arrangements, deciding which
    26        witnesses they want to call, or something like that, or how
    27        to get hold of them, then that is all right, but there are
    28        some topics which have come up which the Plaintiffs have
    29        given us documents on since Mr. Nicholson has been in the
    30        witness box, which I have not spoken to him about, as I
    31        understand it.  That is what Mr. Rampton said to us.
    32
    33        I am just very concerned that matters which were
    34        contentious and which have been partially aired with
    35        Mr. Nicholson are not discussed with him when Mr. Rampton
    36        and Mrs. Brinley-Codd ask any sort of procedural things
    37        about getting the witnesses to court.
    38
    39        I am not entirely sure what Mr. Rampton is saying he wants
    40        to talk about.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think he wants to disclose it, you
    43        see, and there might be reasons for that.  Yes, what would
    44        you like to say?.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  As far as I understand it, the law is absolutely
    47        clear, that he cannot talk about any issue relevant to
    48        Mr. Nicholson's evidence unless he has leave and he has to
    49        specify which those issues are because -----
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Where do you get that from? 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  My understanding of this case is that when anyone
    54        has spoken to the Plaintiff's solicitors during their
    55        evidence, it has been very detailed specification, "You can
    56        talk just about that, for that purpose only".  This is not
    57        a marginal part of the case; the whole publication issue
    58        is, of course, a fundamental plank of the case.
    59
    60        We have sometimes said:  "We cannot say what is on our mind

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