Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 40
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. This was disclosable the moment it came
2 into your possession. It may or may not have made any
3 difference to the course of the trial.
4
5 MS. STEEL: With respect, firstly this must be in the
6 Corporation's possession, seeing it is published by them.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That does not make any difference to the
9 discovery.
10
11 MS. STEEL: The other thing is that I am quite sure the
12 Plaintiffs do not disclose documents before they have had a
13 chance to read them. When we get documents we have to read
14 them to know whether they are relevant or not.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When did you get this?
17
18 MS. STEEL: To be honest I have not even seen it, so that shows
19 we only got it recently.
20
21 MR. MORRIS: I cannot remember; a few days ago.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you cannot tell me that you had better let
24 Mr. Morris make the point, rather than seek to make it
25 yourself.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: I cannot remember the exact date, but it is a few
28 days ago.
29
30 MS. STEEL: The reason -----
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: In this case once you have read it, and you
33 see "We care about the ozone layer", and you think it is of
34 some relevance, which you must do or you would not have put
35 it to the witness, you should disclose it to the other
36 side. I suggest you leave it there.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: We do our best to get documents. It is in our
39 interest to get documents as soon as possible to the other
40 side, but we cannot always do it.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The point being made is if you had it a few
43 days ago, and you know you are going to be cross-examining
44 Mr. Beavers this week, you could have come in one morning,
45 given it to Mrs. Brinley-Codd and said: "We have just
46 found this. Here is a copy for you".
47
48 MS. STEEL: I really do not think it is fair we are continually
49 being criticised, particularly by Mr. Rampton, for taking a
50 couple of days to disclose documents, when the Plaintiffs
51 are continually disclosing things as their witnesses gets
52 into the witness boxes, which, quite obviously, they just
53 had for years. I really think it is double-standards by
54 Mr. Rampton and he should not be allowed to keep
55 complaining about this, and we should not be being under
56 pressure over it.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The reason I am pressing it home is, whatever
59 may or may not have happened on the other side, it appears
60 even now, during this argument, you are not accepting that
