Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 34


     
     1        My Lord, beyond that I obviously cannot go at the moment,
     2        absent a schedule in order from the Defendants.  I only
     3        make this observation -- again it is intended to be
     4        helpful.  My Lord, Mr. Morris wrote us a letter on
     5        7th September in which he helpfully set out his estimates
     6        of the time -----
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I read that.
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, my only observation about that is, when
    11        your Lordship considers this question of scheduling, to my
    12        mind, those estimates of examination-in-chief exceed what
    13        I would call a realistic estimate by, I would say, roughly
    14        seven to eight days in total.
    15
    16        To take an example, from the people from abroad -- it is
    17        only one example -- I will take two; both from the
    18        Antipodes, there is a Mr. Bowland from Australia and there
    19        is Mr. Duncan from New Zealand.  It did seem to me, on
    20        reading their statements, that it is inconceivable on the
    21        basis of what is written in those statements that they
    22        could take more than an hour and a half in-chief, yet
    23        Mr. Morris has them both down for one day.
    24
    25        The same goes also for Norwegian witness, Thomas Yensen,
    26        who is down for one day.  Again, looking at his statement,
    27        I really find it impossible to understand how he could take
    28        as long as that.  The same does not apply with equal force
    29        in the case of all English witnesses, but it certainly does
    30        apply to some of them.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, let me a do a bit on the schedule.  Can
    33        someone who has a diary tell me -- we have Monday,
    34        23rd October written in, so the next Monday will be
    35        30th October.
    36
    37   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:  Sorry, I missed that last point?
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The next Monday which does not have a date
    42        written in on the schedule will be 30th October, and there
    43        are 31 days in October, are there not?
    44
    45   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, there are.  Then there is Monday,
    46        6th November.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  And the 13th.
    49
    50   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am going to write in Lamti and "VG" for 
    51        the 13th, subject to any alteration which Mr. Morris may 
    52        say has now been made.  I have pencilled in Mr. Mehigan for 
    53        the 16th and the Canadian witnesses for the 6th.  What
    54        I cannot do, of course, because I do not have the means of
    55        doing it, is to fill in any of the intervening spaces.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mr. Mehigan, you said, was 16th October.
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  16th October, my Lord.  It would be wise, I think,
    60        to put him in also at least for the 17th.  All this means

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