Day 171 - 11 Oct 95 - Page 31
1 the information is completely useless.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not going to shut my mind as to the
4 possibility that one or both sides might say: "We would
5 like your leave if we require it to call one or two extra
6 witnesses, not because they will give you the whole
7 picture, but we say they put the lie to the other side's
8 case" -- whether it is you who wants to call them or
9 Mr. Morris who wants to call them.
10
11 MR. RAMPTON: I understand that, which is the reason why I made
12 the concession in relation to the people named on
13 Mr. Morris' piece of paper. I agree about that; and it may
14 be that is a legitimate purpose of discovery, that it would
15 enable Mr. Morris to call a witness. He has got past
16 stage 1, which is to plead a particular in relation to a
17 named person.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It could be said that is not an extravagance
20 in this case, because it is all relatively recent when
21 people might remember and we have a chance of getting some
22 documentation which might help.
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: Relating to those named cases. What I do
25 vehemently resist is the idea that we should give to
26 Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel a list of names which their own
27 witness who worked at Bath for something like four or five
28 years has not identified for them. That contravenes --
29 that does not meet the Court of Appeal's criteria for
30 pleading. The Court of Appeal did not change the rule that
31 before you are entitled to discovery you must make a
32 specific allegation on grounds which you reasonably believe
33 you have -- to summarise it.
34
35 For the people that Mr. Logan has not been able to name,
36 the Defendants do not get past the starting post, in our
37 respectful submission; and we ought, therefore, to be
38 permitted to blank out the names of the persons who have
39 not been specified by Mr. Logan.
40
41 I had intended to blank out their hours as well, on the
42 grounds tht there was nothing said about them; therefore,
43 the hours they worked were irrelevant. But a compromise
44 which might appeal to your Lordship, which I am certainly
45 willing to offer, is that I take the names out but leave
46 the hours in, so that your Lordship can see the whole
47 picture, as with the schedules, and the actual numbers of
48 hours worked by every single employee throughout that month
49 or those two months, as the case may be.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What troubles me at the moment is -- so that
52 you can answer back -- there is potential evidence that a
53 lot of people were subject to scheduling malpractices. I
54 am not saying for a moment that that will carry weight at
55 the end of the day, but that is what Mr. Logan says, in
56 effect. Part of the answer to discovery in relation to
57 that is, well, we cannot have vast discovery just on the
58 basis it might support a broad allegation of that kind.
59 Say it has been narrowed down and suppose I am
60 contemplating (as obviously I am) discovery of
