Day 274 - 04 Jul 96 - Page 06
1 Lyde & Gilbert list they propose to prove, if they are not
2 admitted by the defendants, and which they do not propose
3 to prove, so that if they are not admitted and they are not
4 admissible in their own right by some route, I just cannot
5 take account of them.
6
7 I repeat, this is not a formal ruling. I have not heard
8 argument or completed argument on it. It is a statement
9 which I feel I ought to make in the interests of all the
10 parties and particularly the defendants.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: Can I ask one question?
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: I have not had a chance to look through the list in
17 detail, and also because of the state of the organisation
18 of the documents in this case in general, and my particular
19 documents that I have got in particular, that I do not know
20 if I will be able to check them all, find them all. I know
21 what my position is in general, to which I will say on
22 Monday, but I am only worried that there are documents not
23 on the list that the plaintiffs have disclosed that have
24 been discussed during the evidence and I do not know if the
25 plaintiffs can indicate, did they put down all the
26 documents that have been brought up in the evidence.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you should assume that what they put
29 on the list in March were the documents which they have
30 some concern may not be admissible in their own right and
31 therefore they feel are not admissible or may not be
32 admissible unless and until you and Ms. Steel agree them,
33 or they go ahead and formally prove them. So I would not
34 worry about any other documents.
35
36 So far as any other documents are concerned, they will
37 either be admissible in their own right by some legal
38 procedural route or other, or, if they are not admissible
39 in their own right, if the plaintiffs do not go ahead and
40 formally prove them, and if you do not agree them, will not
41 be adducible in evidence.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: That is what I am a little bit concerned about,
44 that there may be significant documents that the plaintiffs
45 have deliberately left off their list that were not
46 favourable to them, and then I do not know, unless I go
47 through the 20,000 pages of transcripts, which documents
48 have come up in the evidence as relevant but do not appear
49 on the list. But maybe if the plaintiffs give some
50 indication of what their thinking was. Is the list a
51 comprehensive list of all relevant documents?
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, I do not think.... You will remember
54 that not long after this list was produced, under the cover
55 of Barlow Lyde & Gilbert's letter, and it is now three and
56 a half months ago, my recollection is that I stressed to
57 you that if there were documents which you wanted to rely
58 on, where there might be some argument about admissibility,
59 you had to produce an equivalent list to see if the
60 plaintiffs would agree them. And I referred to that in the
