Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 52


     
     1
     2   MS. STEEL:   -- the worry, that they may contact other people
     3        from the company and say:  "Well, what shall I say about
     4        this?"
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Raise it in the future because you may
     7        find if a blanket warning is given to every single witness,
     8        you may with regard to one witness or another regret it.
     9        You may positively want them to make some enquiry.
    10
    11        As each witness comes (and I anticipate you are
    12        particularly concerned with those who are working for
    13        McDonald's rather than the independent witnesses) you raise
    14        it with me.  If you want to raise it in the absence of the
    15        particular witness, all you have to say to someone in the
    16        McDonald's team:  "Will you please ask Mr. X not to come
    17        into court for the moment because we want to raise
    18        something with the Judge?"  Do you understand?  That is the
    19        normal form if you are worried about it.
    20
    21   MR. MORRIS:  If we move on then, the Defendants' pleadings,
    22        I think the general impression from everybody is that it
    23        will be useful if we included the main elements from our
    24        witnesses' statements.
    25
    26   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord.  It is not certainly my general
    27        impression.  I would hate the Defendants to waste any time
    28        fiddling about with the pleadings.  If they wish to do it
    29        in the Court of Appeal or something like that in due
    30        course, so be it.  I think it would be a complete and utter
    31        waste of time for the Defendants to spend time fiddling
    32        with the pleadings and transferring this and that
    33        allegation from the witness statements to the pleadings.
    34
    35        What I am concerned about is that matters are not raised
    36        during the course of this case which can be found neither
    37        in the pleadings nor in the witness statements.  I abhor
    38        the idea that the Defendants should spend any time during
    39        the next three weeks doing that as opposed to getting ready
    40        for the next term's trial.
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:  As we understood it, Mr. Rampton wanted us to do it.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think it may have been something I said
    45        because, you remember, I said if as we go along things crop
    46        up which are in the statements and not in the pleadings,
    47        and you feel able just to say a couple of words so
    48        I register that this is a point which is in a statement of
    49        one of your witnesses but not in the pleadings, so I can
    50        make a note of it and it does not pass me by. 
    51 
    52   MR. MORRIS:  It would certainly save us a lot of work if we did 
    53        not do it.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You do not ----
    56
    57   MR. MORRIS:  It is quite a task.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Accept Mr. Rampton's reassurance about that
    60        and I am not calling on you to do it.  If there are

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