Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 36
1 moment?
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: I would have to say, contrary to my earlier
4 expectations, hopes, I cannot see the evidence ending
5 before Christmas and probably not until perhaps the end of
6 January. Something, of course, will depend on what ruling
7 your Lordship makes about the meaning of the leaflet. So,
8 that may affect any additional nutritional evidence. But,
9 making the assumption that has to be called, there are odds
10 and ends elsewhere. There is Mr. Fairgrieve; there is the
11 paper making people and there may be others that I have
12 forgotten; Mr. Preston has to come back; other people of
13 that kind. I doubt whether it is terribly likely that we
14 should get seriously embarked on publication much before
15 Christmas, certainly it is, I fear, that we shall not
16 finish it before Christmas.
17
18 Therefore, taking all things into account, including one's
19 experience in this case and due breaks for preparation
20 which your Lordship has always allowed and, in my
21 respectful view, properly so, if I may say so, one cannot
22 really be sensibly confident that the evidence will finish
23 before the end of January. What your Lordship decides
24 shall be done with the case thereafter, of course, is
25 entirely another matter.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there a specific reason why the French
28 witnesses have been put in at the beginning of the week
29 beginning 9th October?
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: No, there is not. That is not something that has
32 been confirmed with them. It has been done like because we
33 thought it might appeal to your Lordship. But, if your
34 Lordship felt that it might be better to do something else
35 instead, I am quite sure that they can be deferred until
36 some later date. It does mean that the evidence may not go
37 strictly back-to-back because your Lordship may say: "We
38 should have some evidence in the week beginning the 9th".
39 If that were so, it would have to be the Defendants'
40 evidence because we do not have anybody else on
41 employment.
42
43 We do have to have the argument on meaning at some stage,
44 that is true, which could be had that week. But the French
45 witnesses are not fixed for that date. We have put them in
46 because we thought your Lordship would want us, as far as
47 we could, to finish our employment evidence in a run, but
48 that is not set in concrete by any means. They could
49 certainly be put off until later. They could, perhaps, go
50 in the same week as Mr. Mehigan -- this is just an
51 hypothesis -- so there could be a week of Plaintiff's
52 evidence between two weeks of Defendants' evidence, just a
53 possibility.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will hear what Ms. Steel and what
56 Mr. Morris want to say, but I have some anxiety at the
57 moment of them coming probably something like a week after
58 their statements have been served. Quite apart from that,
59 I can see some benefit in the French witnesses on both side
60 coming reasonably close together, whether they are actually
