Day 147 - 04 Jul 95 - Page 42


     
     1        said yesterday about the order of events to the end of
     2        term, all you have to do, if you chose to do it and think
     3        it worthwhile, is take their statements out of the bundle
     4        you have here, take them home and have a quick read through
     5        the witnesses who are about to come maybe in two or three
     6        days time and compare them with the copies you have
     7        yourself.
     8
     9        If they are different in a way which embarrasses you tell
    10        me, but since we are not following, for better or worse,
    11        the Lord Chief Justice's recent practice direction in
    12        relation to treating statements which have been served as
    13        the evidence-in-chief, it probably does not matter very
    14        much or at all.
    15
    16   MS. STEEL:   This matter has arisen because the Plaintiffs, at
    17        least that we have discovered, put statements in the trial
    18        bundles which they have not disclosed to us which is not
    19        the correct practice and which they should not have done.
    20        We do not have the time to spend ages going through the
    21        statements to compare them.  In some cases we have written
    22        on statements, so we do not want to hand them over to the
    23        Plaintiffs for them to check them either.
    24
    25        So we suggest, since this was caused by the doings of the
    26        Plaintiffs, that they should pay for an independent person
    27        to make that comparison on our behalf to ensure that the
    28        statements in the trial bundles are the ones which were
    29        served originally.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will give a ruling on that in due course.
    32        On the matters where an indication from me given as the
    33        argument goes along is not sufficient, I propose to give
    34        all my rulings in one judgment in due course when I have
    35        heard all the argument on the contentious matters.
    36
    37   MS. STEEL:   There are 13 bundles of statements which would need
    38        to be compared with the statements that were originally
    39        served.  It is a considerable task.  It is the fault of the
    40        Plaintiffs that this has happened.  I do not think that we
    41        should be put to a disadvantage through something that is
    42        caused by their actions and their failing to follow the
    43        correct procedures in putting the disclosed statements in
    44        the trial bundles and substituting them for different ones.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  Just concentrating on the Plaintiffs' list, there
    47        are a couple of things.  I am not sure what happened about
    48        the explanation about the Wages Councils and the EC
    49        Directives and Regulations.  I cannot remember what
    50        Mr. Rampton said, but that was something that was going to 
    51        come ----- 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  He did not deal with those.
    54
    55   MR. RAMPTON:  Not yesterday.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Not yesterday, no.  They were not on your
    58        list, I think.
    59
    60   MR. MORRIS:  No.

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