Day 169 - 04 Oct 95 - Page 62


     
     1        may be important, it is obviously in your own interest to
     2        say that the past is water under the bridge and at least
     3        get to the office to have something of a look at it.  But
     4        I do not want to enter back into the argument.
     5
     6   MS. STEEL:  I am not trying to enter back into an argument.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is my suggestion.  So far as involvement
     9        in the campaign is concerned, I have said this in another
    10        context in the past:  I have to rule on issues as they
    11        arise on the material which is then available to me.  If
    12        and when you give evidence on the topic, obviously my state
    13        of information advances much further.  I will listen
    14        carefully to everything you say in your evidence-in-chief
    15        and to the answers you give in cross-examination and
    16        anything you wish to say thereafter in what would be the
    17        equivalent of re-examination.  I will know much more about
    18        the situation than I do now, and I will not consider myself
    19        in any way bound or shackled by the terms of the ruling I
    20        have made in the past.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:   OK.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Never be too proud to change my mind, even if
    25        I had made it up on any particular topic.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:   OK.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  Just something -- could I just ask one question?
    30        First, how does it happen just when we go in the witness
    31        box ourselves, if we do, or whatever -- say, for example,
    32        Helen goes first, do I question her first and then
    33        Mr. Rampton cross-examines her?
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think I have told you about this before but
    36        there is absolutely no harm in repeating it.
    37
    38        A time comes when you will have the opportunity to give
    39        evidence.  In fact, when we get to your defence cases, we
    40        have to be a little more formal about the order of events
    41        because you are separate Defendants and separate Plaintiffs
    42        in your own Counterclaim, and Ms. Steel just by chance is
    43        higher on the list of the original Defendants than you were
    44        so she comes first.
    45
    46        The way it is going to work out is that Mr. Rampton will
    47        have called all of his evidence on various topics and then
    48        a stage will be reached when I will say to Ms. Steel, "Do
    49        you want to give evidence yourself and call any further
    50        witnesses in support of your case?"  If she wants to both 
    51        give evidence herself and call witnesses in support of her 
    52        case, it is better that she gives evidence first normally 
    53        and then calls her witnesses, though, subject to anything
    54        Mr. Rampton says, I do not think one need be particularly
    55        formal about that.  But, in any event, let us suppose that
    56        Ms. Steel chooses to give evidence herself.  She goes into
    57        the witness box, she is sworn or affirms, and then she
    58        tells me what she wants me to hear, not in argument but on
    59        matters of fact and opinion and anything that is relevant
    60        for her to say.

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