Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 17
1 might like to, the best thing is to wait until we have
2 disclosed documents, which we will do as soon as possible,
3 and, as it were, store this matter, if it needs to be
4 argued, for a later date.
5
6 As I said, I think, before to your Lordship, I have no
7 inhibition about Mrs. Barnes being recalled at all, so long
8 as it is not a waste of her time.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. I think my reaction at the moment is, if
11 there is any doubt about it, let Mrs. Barnes come back.
12 But if one can avoid the need for her to come back, by a
13 level of agreement about discovery and what it is accepted
14 on the face of the discovery of a document, then let us
15 avoid bringing her here.
16
17 MR. RAMPTON: As your Lordship has just said, to that end it is
18 desirable at the very least that the Defendants should, in
19 advance of any argument, provide a list, just the page
20 numbers and paragraph numbers, of the points that they
21 think it might be necessary to cross-examine about.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest you do -----
24
25 MS. STEEL: We are not entirely happy about that, because if we
26 give away everything, then that does enable witnesses to
27 kind of -- I do not know. I think you can get a different
28 response if witnesses do not know exactly what you are
29 going to be asking them.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you are going to persuade me that
32 Mrs. Barnes needs to be recalled, I think you have to point
33 to something which you need to ask her a question about.
34 I do not think you can avoid that. I have seen
35 Mrs. Barnes, and I will keep an open mind until the end of
36 this case, but I am going to need an awful lot of
37 persuading that she is a dishonest woman ---
38
39 MS. STEEL: I do not think that is the -----
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- and that is she is going to go scratching
42 around before she is recalled to try to avoid some way of
43 you making a point on a document.
44
45 MS. STEEL: I am not particularly trying to suggest that she is
46 dishonest. I think it is something of a matter of
47 principle, in a way, in that the minutes ought to have been
48 disclosed prior to her coming into the witness box; and if
49 they had been, we would not have had to give any kind of
50 notice of what was specifically asked for.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I urge you to rethink about that and see if
53 you cannot identify what the parts are. The way you can do
54 that is to get a photocopy of the relevant documents and
55 then just underline in red biro or put some mark in the
56 margin next to the quote which you, in effect, want an
57 admission on. You need not write it all out on a fresh
58 piece of paper; that will be sufficient identification.
59 Then Mr. Rampton can say what his client's attitude is. It
60 will probably be perfectly obvious, anyway, if I bothered
