Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 47


     
     1        is what used to be called the Whitsun week comes.  It is
     2        usually the last week of May, but I do not know if that is
     3        so in 1996.  It was the end of May this year, I know that
     4        is correct.  But I really have no idea of what -----
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is why I ask.
     7
     8   MR. RAMPTON:  I am sorry, I do not know.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Your prognosis really takes us up to the end
    11        of that half?
    12
    13   MR. RAMPTON:  It does really, and if we lose eight days for one
    14        reason or another, judicial duties and Ms. Steel's family
    15        concerns, then, of course, it may go beyond that so far as
    16        the evidence is concerned.  Of course, there are all sorts
    17        of possibilities.  It may be that all these witnesses will
    18        not be called.
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will have to wait and see.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:   If I could just say something.  I mean, firstly
    23        I do not really see why the Heathrow issue should take a
    24        whole week; none of the other individual incidents have
    25        taken a whole week.  I mean, I might be wrong, but I get
    26        the impression this might be kind of scare tactics from the
    27        Plaintiffs to make it look as though things are going to
    28        take longer than they are.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would not interpret it that way, quite
    31        frankly.  Generally speaking, regrettably -- and I am not
    32        blaming anyone for it -- things have taken longer than they
    33        were expected.
    34
    35   MS. STEEL:   Yes, but ----
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That must be the most obvious statement which
    38        has been made in this court in the last year and a half.
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:  I understand that, but I really do not see why,
    41        particularly because Mr. Rampton is making a continual big
    42        fuss about no evidence on this and no evidence on that,
    43        I really do not see why the Heathrow thing should take a
    44        whole week.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I must say, I think you are being a bit
    47        touchy about that, because other things may take less as
    48        well and other things may take longer.  It is certainly not
    49        going to influence me that two days has been put in for one
    50        thing and two weeks for another.  Sometimes the evidence 
    51        which turns a case is given in one sentence. 
    52 
    53   MS. STEEL:  I am not being touchy about it.  I am just offering
    54        my opinions on the schedule, and it appears to me that,
    55        say, five days to discuss the Heathrow incident is a lot --
    56        appears to be a lot more than is necessary.  Likewise, just
    57        another example, the Watkins/Paterson business, that is
    58        just a video that takes seven minutes at most.  I really do
    59        not see how cross-examination of Miss Watkins could take
    60        longer than half a day at the very most.

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