Day 164 - 26 Sep 95 - Page 55


     
     1        confidentiality to the film producer who is not Anne Tobin
     2        but a lady called Jane Gabriel.  Your Lordship said that
     3        your Lordship would decide the application for discovery in
     4        the light of the representations, if any, that Ms. Gabriel
     5        or Channel 4 might like to make to your Lordship at the
     6        start of this term.
     7
     8        In the event, it appears that Mr. Morris has returned those
     9        transcripts to Ms. Gabriel -- if I am wrong, he will
    10        correct me -- thus pre-empting, aborting, my application
    11        for discovery because if Mr. Morris has got rid of the
    12        documents it means I cannot get discovery of them
    13        save -----
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is not right, is it?  You may not get
    16        discovery under Ord. 24 but you could issue a subpoena ---
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  That is the point.
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- and serve it and have Ms. Gabriel attend
    21        unless she applies to set aside the subpoena with the
    22        documents ahead of any use of them.
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  That is where the substance of my application or
    25        my mention, if your Lordship likes, ends up, because what
    26        it means is, and your Lordship said that Ms. Tobin should
    27        not be called until such time as we had had a chance to
    28        look at all 700 pages of transcript, whatever they were in
    29        any event, that until such time as we have subpoenaed
    30        Ms. Gabriel, and that matter has either been set aside or
    31        she comes to court with the documents and we have
    32        subsequently had time to digest the documents, the
    33        Defendants must not schedule Ms. Tobin to give evidence.
    34        I think it only regrettable, if I may say so, that
    35        Mr. Morris should have returned the documents in the light
    36        of your Lordship's observations at the end of last term,
    37        but there it is.  That is spilt milk.
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:  All I can say is that they were lent to me.
    40        I signed an undertaking.  Ms. Gabriel demanded them back
    41        off me.  They were not the subject of an order.  I had no
    42        alternative but to give them back.  I think I made it
    43        perfectly clear that I wanted them to be available, but
    44        that was not her wishes.  That is all I have to say really.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  You may have been right that you had no
    47        alternative to return them, but what it seems to me is that
    48        it would be counterproductive to call Ms. Tobin before
    49        McDonald's have had some time to take whatever process they
    50        think is appropriate to get Ms. Gabriel and the documents 
    51        here. 
    52 
    53   MS. STEEL:  I was going to say, to save time, we have no
    54        objection it that, though obviously within the limits.  I
    55        mean, if the Plaintiffs leave it for another three months,
    56        then -----
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you are prepared to say that you propose
    59        to advise your clients to take some such procedure, then
    60        I will say that I do not want to hear Ms. Tobin until you

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