Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 47


     
     1        after that, subject to Mr. Rampton having time to -----
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I do have something to say about that.
     4        I, like your Lordship, hope that the evidence will be
     5        finished by the end of June, or at least the first week of
     6        July.  If I get a completely new witness on -- and this is
     7        what is likely to happen -- 30th May, dealing with a
     8        restaurant whose identity has not yet been revealed to us
     9        -- he is no longer a McDonald's employee so there is no
    10        reason on earth why it should not be revealed to us if
    11        Mr. Morris knows it -- we are not going to have time to
    12        deal with it.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest I do is I add to say the
    15        deadline -- it rather puts you at risk, Mr. Morris, but
    16        there we are; several months have gone by; I am not
    17        suggesting it is your responsibility if a witness has not
    18        come up with something -- but I will say the deadline for
    19        service is 31st May or at least 28 days before the end of
    20        the evidence.  It is a rather strange situation.  What that
    21        means is you take a risk that if he is not served until
    22        late May, the evidence finishes within 28 days of that time
    23        and you cannot call him.
    24
    25        What about Tom Caulfield?
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  That is something which I have been chasing up for
    28        a couple of months now.  He was one of the people involved
    29        in the ---
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I remember who he was.
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:  -- dispute.  It was really a simple matter of
    34        getting -- that, obviously, will be a Civil Evidence Act
    35        notice in any case and it is something which has already
    36        been canvassed, so it should not be difficult for the court
    37        to deal with it.  It is just a question of me getting a
    38        brief statement off him.  I did speak to him directly and
    39        he said he would do one, but I have not chased it up.  In
    40        fact, I forgot about it but I will chase it up.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will make the same order in respect of
    43        him.  I am not going to say anything else about scheduling
    44        because I want to hear what the position is about the
    45        London Trial Centre first.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:   There is something that I wanted to raise ---
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    50 
    51   MS. STEEL:  -- which is that I presume you will have seen the 
    52        things that the Plaintiffs sent to us last weekend which 
    53        include further voluntary particulars of the Plaintiffs'
    54        case.  Now, they say they are relying on -- have you seen
    55        those?
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:   They say they are relying on various matters in
    60        respect of the issue of malice in the main action, the

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