Day 115 - 06 Apr 95 - Page 62
1 MR. MORRIS: Yes, all the four.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you have their names now? You are not
4 obliging yourself actually to call them.
5
6 MR. MORRIS: I cannot remember them, but I think if we receive
7 letters where people say they are not coming, then that is
8 fine, but I do not see what it proves. The problem is not
9 that we get letters saying "We are going to attend", but
10 what happens to the people who do not reply. I think it
11 would be -----
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We have not come to that problem yet. That
14 is probably for the beginning of next term. In fact,
15 whether four is enough to carry out any useful operation at
16 this stage or not I do not know. If you have the names of
17 the four, it might at least tell those who represent
18 McDonald's that whatever other decision they make about who
19 they call and do not call, they are faced with the prospect
20 of those people actually giving evidence, do you see?
21 Depending on who they are, they may between them cover a
22 number of topics which are raised in the witness statements
23 which you have served.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think you are being trapped in any
28 way.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: It is just at the moment the Plaintiffs are to meet
31 the case of all our witness statements.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The trouble is I am not accepting that as
34 such, because we have got an awful lot of potential
35 witnesses there. At the moment I am not at all persuaded
36 that the Plaintiffs should be obliged to call all their
37 witnesses against the mere prospect that you might call all
38 or most of yours. What I am contemplating at the moment is
39 that certainly they should call witnesses to deal with
40 those who indicated on these forms they are going to come;
41 that I should allow them not to call witnesses dealing with
42 the evidence which your other witnesses might give but
43 allow them to call evidence in rebuttal, if need be, if
44 those people are called. I am not going to have a full
45 discussion about it now.
46
47 MR. MORRIS: I think that is extremely unfair, with respect, and
48 we would like to make our submission on that at some
49 stage. I just think that is a real ambush by the
50 Plaintiffs to -----
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have said I do not want to discuss it now
53 because it may never in fact come to that. Suppose, for
54 instance, you had but a third of your potential witnesses
55 who completed the form and said that they are intending to
56 come. Those third amongst them might, in fact, deal with
57 every point or virtually every point upon which the
58 Plaintiffs might want to call evidence, so that would be
59 quite enough among the limited number of witnesses to put
60 the obligation on the Plaintiffs to call their evidence
