Day 153 - 12 Jul 95 - Page 54


     
     1        procedures.
     2
     3        So far as I can understand, we are conducting the case as
     4        effectively as the Plaintiffs, with their vast experience
     5        and resources, and that the obligations should be as much
     6        on the Plaintiffs, if not more -- especially in this case
     7        where they are bringing a rebuttal witness, effectively --
     8        to put the matters which they feel, they know, our
     9        witnesses have already put on oath and on record and are
    10        going to be -----
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am afraid I disagree with you about that.
    13        It does not matter that the witness statement has not dealt
    14        with an allegation which reflects on the witness.  It does
    15        not matter that the witness's evidence-in-chief has not
    16        dealt with it.
    17
    18        If you have an allegation which you expect one of your
    19        witnesses to make in due course with which the witness in
    20        the witness box can deal, and especially if it reflects on
    21        the witness's character, the normal procedure is that you
    22        should put it.
    23
    24        You have just to accept from me that that is the proper
    25        procedure.  If you have been under a misunderstanding about
    26        that, then you must understand the proper situation from
    27        now on.
    28
    29        I am not -- and this is the third time at least I have said
    30        this within the last quarter of an hour -- going to assume
    31        because something is not put that you are abandoning it.
    32        But what I have said to you, you must accept as the normal
    33        procedure.  If you have been under an illusion about what
    34        the proper procedure is or if, from now on, knowing what
    35        the proper procedure is, you have not put something and
    36        Mr. Rampton says, "I really would like that put", in
    37        effect, it is only fair to the witness to put it, then you
    38        really must put it.  If you do not, apart from anything
    39        else, once Mr. Rampton has raised it, if you do not put it,
    40        I will; and that means I am intervening in your
    41        cross-examination.  I know I have done that often enough,
    42        I hope only to help.  But I am intervening in your
    43        cross-examination when you might well prefer to ask the
    44        questions yourself, rather than have me asking them.
    45
    46   MS. STEEL:  Can I just ask for clarification?  If we put in a
    47        witness statement and the Plaintiffs do not call a witness
    48        to counter what has been said, then it is assumed that our
    49        witness is telling the truth, unless they are completely
    50        and utterly destroyed in the witness box? 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, not necessarily.  You may call a witness 
    53        in relation to that -- I am not saying this will be so --
    54        but you may call a witness and the Plaintiffs may not have
    55        called a witness on that topic at all, and when I hear your
    56        witness I may think that his or her evidence is so
    57        improbable or contradictory within itself that I just
    58        cannot accept it; and it would be exactly the same way
    59        round.  In fact, you have made comments to that effect when
    60        Mr. Rampton has called witnesses from time to time.  You

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