Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 26
1 handle and the goodies come tumbling out of the fruit
2 machine, now is time, we feel, where they must understand,
3 if we are right about the law, that is not so. This
4 applies, in particular, to documents outside this country,
5 Brazil, Costa Rica and the USA I see are mentioned on
6 Mr. Morris' list. I see it mentions Jarrets, for example.
7 In his latest list he mentions -----
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There a whole load of areas it might apply
10 to. It might apply to the use of soya in Germany and all
11 sorts of things like that.
12
13 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, indeed.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is really quite far-reaching.
16
17 MR. RAMPTON: It would apply, if we are right, for example, to
18 the documents that Professor Jackson saw at McKey's and Sun
19 Valley, even supposing that your Lordship thought it right
20 we should disclose those anyway, but that is a separate
21 question.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There was no discussion on this at all when
24 the matter came before the Court of Appeal principally on
25 the issues of striking out parts of Defendants' case and
26 trial by jury, there was no mention by a side wind of this
27 potential problem or issue?
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: I cannot actually remember. Certainly there was a
30 concern in my head that a basis for a pleading so flimsy as
31 to be transparent could act as a lever for a torrent of
32 discovery. That certainly was a single concern of mine
33 and, if anything has proved me right, it has been the
34 conduct of this case. But that was not a submission that
35 I was able to make in the Court of Appeal because your
36 Lordship well knows, alas, sometimes the Court of Appeal is
37 more concerned with principle, and perhaps rightly, than it
38 is with practicalities.
39
40 However, there it is; we have made a discovery in this case
41 -- I use "discovery" in its broad sense -- which goes, if
42 we are right about the law, far beyond what was required of
43 us. From now on, if we are right -- it may be a good
44 reason why your Lordship should now decide whether we are
45 right or not -- we intend to put up the shutters as and
46 when required.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, thank you. Where do you want to go?
49 I think you have heard me say enough to realise that it is
50 a potentially important point of principle.
51
52 MR. MORRIS: I think what would you like us to do? Would you
53 like us to put up the argument now?
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you in a position to argue back to what
56 Mr. Rampton has said about the test which should be applied
57 which, essentially, it seems to me, are by his argument
58 contained in what Lord Justice Shaw and Lord Diplock said,
59 firstly, in the Court of Appeal and, secondly, in the House
60 of Lords in the Lonrho case?
