Day 168 - 03 Oct 95 - Page 30


     
     1        taken.  We do not have a legal team to do it for us.
     2
     3        Thirdly, that if Mr. Morris had not found out the name or
     4        that that specific allegation in Mr. Logan's statement
     5        related to Mr. Richards, then I am sure that we would have
     6        just put to the witness:  "What Mr. Logan says here, did
     7        you ever do that?"  If he says "No", "Are you aware of any
     8        other managers doing that?" in which case, effectively, we
     9        would have asked exactly the same question, and I am sure
    10        if would have been allowed -- that that would be the way it
    11        would be dealt with.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What troubles me is here is nothing to do
    14        with those arguments.  It is apparent that when he came
    15        into court this morning, Mr. Morris must have had these
    16        extra details but no notice of them has been given.
    17        Several times last term and already this term I have had
    18        things to say about that.
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:   We are doing our best, but unless we have extra
    21        time in order to contact all the witnesses and then check
    22        out the possibilities -----
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You must raise the matter with me.  It is not
    25        any answer that you are doing your best if, in fact, your
    26        best is not enough.  I am not going to allow any new
    27        matters of fact which relate to this witness to be put to
    28        him unless you have given notice to the other side in
    29        advance.
    30
    31   MR. MORRIS:  The Plaintiffs also have a lot of the information
    32        in their possession about what was going on in the Bath
    33        store which is relevant to this case, and they have not
    34        disclosed a single document.  They are under an obligation
    35        to disclose those documents before we cross-examine their
    36        witness, which we are doing now, and our witness.
    37
    38        I think that that is equally important, but that has been,
    39        you know, put to one side because, OK, they have got the
    40        arduous task of searching for documents, all that kind of
    41        stuff, despite their massive legal team and all the
    42        documents being in their possession.  You know, we just
    43        have to do the best we can based on what scant information
    44        we are capable of getting to make sure the issues are
    45        raised and the witness can deny them if they are not true.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That has nothing to do with the point I am
    48        raising at the moment.  You have not done the best you can
    49        because you must have come into court this morning with
    50        this information without giving any intimation to the other 
    51        side that you had it. 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  I have a lot of scrappy notes written in the
    54        margins of Mr. Richards' statement which I took down from a
    55        phone call.  I have not even had a chance to look at them
    56        except to go through the names which I was asked to do,
    57        which I did.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If this happens in the future, you must write
    60        them down on a sheet of paper, make a photocopy and hand it

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