Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 27


     
     1        privileged; the Defendants must make a case that it is.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, if that was said, it accounts for
     4        the  -----
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  I do know where it came from, it came from Costa
     7        Rica -- it is as simple as that -- which is where it was
     8        sent, so far as I can tell.  I am much a baby in these
     9        matters as anybody else, but I have been looking as hard as
    10        I could and as legible as it is not at the fax writing on
    11        the top of the document.  It is clear from that that it
    12        came to us in Oak Brook.  I think it came via Oak Brook to
    13        us in England from Costa Rica, which is what led me to
    14        suppose that it could not possibly be a privileged
    15        document, otherwise it would have not have been put into
    16        the hands of -----
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  With that little bit of extra information, we
    19        are just back where we were when it was last mentioned.  If
    20        you do make an application, it will be for the return of
    21        the document.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:  It is not as if the case lives or dies on this
    24        document, but the point is it cannot be in as evidence of
    25        circulation of anything if it is a communication between us
    26        and a potential witness, a letter -----
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is another point.
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:  That is all really, so whether the original
    31        document is returned or not -----
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There are two possible applications, two
    34        possible ways, in which this arises:  One, you say it is a
    35        privileged document and that, in accordance with authority
    36        on that topic (which I cannot now recall, but I remember we
    37        touched on it when Mr. Rampton was saying he wanted certain
    38        documents back at one time), whether you are entitled to
    39        have it returned to you so it disappears altogether from
    40        the bundles, if that is what you ask for; the second thing
    41        is if you do not pursue such an application so it stays in
    42        the bundle, whether it is relevant and what, if anything,
    43        it shows, which is an evidential argument.  But the ball is
    44        in your court.  If it is the evidential argument, we will
    45        come to it in due course.  If it is you making an
    46        application for its return which, if it is succeeds, means
    47        we can forget any evidential argument because it will not
    48        be in front of me, then it is for you to make the
    49        application.  You have to remind yourself of what the law
    50        is in relation to that. 
    51 
    52   MR. MORRIS:  I do not care whether I get the original back or 
    53        whatever.  All I am saying is that if something is in the
    54        documents and may be referred to in evidence, of course,
    55        then it becomes a public document.  I do not think that our
    56        communication with our witnesses, or potential witnesses,
    57        should be in the documents files.  So, that is all I am
    58        saying is it should be removed from those files.  Whether
    59        the Plaintiffs give us the original back or not, I am not
    60        bothered about.  That is the application, that it be

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