Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 15
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I have found it.
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not say there was a meeting, but it
5 says: "Objectives were set in May and the Task Force was
6 reformed in May."
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8 MS. STEEL: To me, it is an indication of a meeting, but also
9 on the front there is reference to a previous minute of a
10 previous meeting, being approved and signed by Jill Barnes,
11 which would tally with a meeting in May, because I think
12 they are held every three months.
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The previous meeting would be since May,
15 because we have one on 12th August, have we not?
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17 MS. STEEL: No, because I am referring to the one on
18 12th August. On the front page, it says: "The minutes of
19 the previous meeting were approved and signed by
20 Jill Barnes." That is on the very first page of the whole
21 of tab 57B.
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23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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25 MS. STEEL: Also, in between the minutes of 13th February 1992
26 and 7th December 1992, there are no minutes for any
27 meetings between those dates. I do not know whether we
28 should just assume there were no meetings or whether the
29 Plaintiffs should confirm that. Obviously, if these had
30 been disclosed before Ms. Barnes was in the witness box, we
31 could have asked her that.
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33 MR. RAMPTON: Your Lordship may remember that that was when
34 Mrs. Barnes was on maternity leave.
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36 MS. STEEL: That was not picked up, what I said, so I will just
37 say it again. It does not necessarily mean that there were
38 no meetings, the fact that Mrs. Barnes was on maternity
39 leave.
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41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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43 MS. STEEL: The main point about whether Mrs. Barnes should be
44 recalled or not, we wanted to reserve our position on that
45 until a decision was made about what further documents we
46 are going to get, if any, and until after we have seen any
47 further documents that are to be disclosed. That includes
48 the ones we applied for a couple of days ago.
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50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, carry on.
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52 MS. STEEL: That was the hustle one and the response to the HSE
53 report. Also, we just wanted to clarify something that we
54 thought you said before, but we were not sure, in terms of
55 being able to rely on what is in the minutes and in the
56 documents if we do not recall Mrs. Barnes.
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58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I was saying was that you may not have
59 to have a witness to verify what is in a document which is
60 clearly made by and on behalf of the Plaintiffs but, lest
