Day 251 - 17 May 96 - Page 38
1 agreement; I would not expect to get it in any
2 circumstances. I am asking for your Lordship's help and,
3 if necessary, your formal leave to speak to Mr. Nicholson
4 -- I am not going to say more than this -- about certain
5 questions relating to the witnesses which I intend to call
6 in the future on the issue of publication, to have his
7 decision on certain questions relating to those witnesses.
8 I say no more than that.
9
10 It does not in any sense directly impact (to use a horrid
11 modern word) on the evidence he has presently given or will
12 give in the future; but, plainly, since it is on the same
13 general area of the case, I feel uncomfortable talking to
14 him about it without your Lordship's leave. I am not at
15 all convinced that we will get to him next week, because
16 not only is there Professor Naismith, there may well be Dr.
17 Arnott as well. In any event, some of these questions
18 which I want to discuss with him -- I would have raised it
19 at the end of the afternoon's hearing if we had had it
20 anyway -- are of some urgency and do need to be dealt with
21 sooner rather than later.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. What would you like to say about that?
24
25 MS. STEEL: If it is just about arrangements, deciding which
26 witnesses they want to call, or something like that, or how
27 to get hold of them, then that is all right, but there are
28 some topics which have come up which the Plaintiffs have
29 given us documents on since Mr. Nicholson has been in the
30 witness box, which I have not spoken to him about, as I
31 understand it. That is what Mr. Rampton said to us.
32
33 I am just very concerned that matters which were
34 contentious and which have been partially aired with
35 Mr. Nicholson are not discussed with him when Mr. Rampton
36 and Mrs. Brinley-Codd ask any sort of procedural things
37 about getting the witnesses to court.
38
39 I am not entirely sure what Mr. Rampton is saying he wants
40 to talk about.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think he wants to disclose it, you
43 see, and there might be reasons for that. Yes, what would
44 you like to say?.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: As far as I understand it, the law is absolutely
47 clear, that he cannot talk about any issue relevant to
48 Mr. Nicholson's evidence unless he has leave and he has to
49 specify which those issues are because -----
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where do you get that from?
52
53 MR. MORRIS: My understanding of this case is that when anyone
54 has spoken to the Plaintiff's solicitors during their
55 evidence, it has been very detailed specification, "You can
56 talk just about that, for that purpose only". This is not
57 a marginal part of the case; the whole publication issue
58 is, of course, a fundamental plank of the case.
59
60 We have sometimes said: "We cannot say what is on our mind
