Day 146 - 03 Jul 95 - Page 33
1 pleading there is a paragraph 5 which sets out the
2 particulars in support of that, if I can call it Lucas-Box,
3 now having explained it.
4
5 So, my Lord, having gone through that letter, that really
6 deals with the issues that are raised there. Then the
7 letter goes on to set out the sort of documentation that we
8 require, or that we think is the sort of thing that is
9 likely to be a relevant document. That arises out of the
10 fact that your Lordship asked me back in December last year
11 at the hearing to try and give a list on my feet, as it
12 were, of the sort of documents that the Defendants should
13 be looking to see if they had. Rather embarrassingly,
14 I petered out mid stream and I then went back and had a bit
15 more thought about it and was able to----
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Produced a flood.
18
19 MR. ATKINSON: -- produce this list which, I hope, is long
20 enough. In fact, if I might just, in a burst of
21 enthusiasm, add some further things. It is quite an
22 important point -- not meaning to be flippant about it
23 because it is an important point -- I would like to add
24 into that list any London Greenpeace or McLibel support
25 campaign cheque books. I will tell your Lordship how this
26 arises in a minute, but cheque books or cheque stubs.
27
28 MS. STEEL: Can you just slow down, please?
29
30 MR. ATKINSON: Any bank statements to do with those two groups,
31 something called either the bank book or pass book of
32 London Greenpeace or, if appropriate, the McLibel support
33 campaign, any invoices or receipts to do with those two
34 groups and, indeed, any record that go to the issue -- and
35 this is the issue -- of whether or not the Defendants,
36 either one or other or both, were, in fact, the signatories
37 to the London Greenpeace bank account or the signatories to
38 the McLibel support campaign bank account, or indeed, less
39 specifically, were responsible for handling the financial
40 affairs of those two groups. I will tell your Lordship how
41 this has arisen as we are on it.
42
43 My Lord, I do not know whether -- you ought to have now
44 some supplementary statements from two of our private ----
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the distinction between all this and
47 the simple issue of publication on your Statement of Claim?
48
49 MR. ATKINSON: In one sense, the question of involvement in the
50 campaign has been raised at a very early stage because it
51 was dealt with not only in the Statement of Claim, as your
52 Lordship says, in paragraph 2 of that pleading, it was also
53 dealt with in the further and better particulars of the
54 Statement of Claim at various paragraphs, and it was also
55 dealt with in the further and better particulars of the
56 further and better particulars of the Statement of Claim.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But do you say all these matters, if there
59 were documents under any of these heads which you have
60 actually related to the defence to counterclaim, then they
