Day 147 - 04 Jul 95 - Page 41
1 concerned about that, they feel intimidated about it. We
2 did make an application.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will hear anything Mr. Rampton wants to say
5 about that. My inclination is to allow any person who does
6 not want to give their address, whether they have good
7 reason for that reticence or not, to allow them not to give
8 their address provided it is written on the usual slip
9 which is kept in the court file, unless the party not
10 calling the witness puts before me a specific reason
11 relevant to any issue for needing to know the address.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Just one more thing about witness statements: It
14 is point 8 of the Plaintiffs' list, that they have a
15 problem because they are not sure what they put in our
16 trial bundles and whether they accord with their own
17 statements.
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord, that is not right. I am sorry, it is
20 not right. That is not our concern. We know perfectly
21 well what is in the trial bundles. What we are concerned
22 about is that we have no way of knowing what it was -- it
23 is a matter of actual history -- that Barlow's served on
24 the Defendants at the time when the witness statements were
25 exchanged. I explained exactly what the position was.
26 This is becoming a bit of a bugbear, this question.
27
28 What Barlows have in their offices -- Mrs. Brinley-Codd
29 will immediately correct me if I am wrong -- are what we
30 call the "originals". What has gone into the trial bundles
31 are copies of those originals so far as we know. In some
32 cases, earlier versions, as we saw with the statement, I
33 cannot remember what it was, the other day, earlier
34 versions containing more material than has gone into the
35 final version and Barlows still have in their office, was
36 served on the Defendants.
37
38 That means we have no way of telling whether what the
39 Defendants have got corresponds with what they have in
40 their trial bundles, unless we look at the statements the
41 Defendants have got which were exchanged back in July
42 1993. That is not something that I am willing to ask your
43 Lordship to let me do, to look at the Defendants' witness
44 statements. If they are anything like mine they are
45 covered in handwriting.
46
47 It is right to say, as often happens, each statement went
48 through a number of drafts or most of them did. There is
49 really no way we can answer this question. The Defendants
50 are the only people in a position to do it, and the only
51 way they can do it is by checking what they have (if they
52 can be bothered, which I certainly would not be) against
53 what is in the trial bundles.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: At the moment I cannot see any difficulty
56 about that because it is a practical problem which is
57 insurmountable unless you are prepared to hand over the
58 copies you have got. Mr. Rampton does not want to ask you
59 to do that. I cannot see you actually losing anything from
60 this because, for instance, having heard what Mr. Rampton
