Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 31
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is not necessarily. That is why I am
3 asking about time, you see. I would have been minded to
4 abridge time, even having heard what Mr. Rampton had said,
5 but for two points which make me wonder whether it helps
6 one bit. The first is that I think logically the first
7 thing everyone has to know is what, if anything, you want
8 to add to your pleading, working for the time being on the
9 assumption that the admission at the moment blocks any
10 further evidence about Preston. I know I have not ruled
11 upon that, but suppose that were to be the ruling I had
12 made, what would you want to add so that it would either
13 come in as an admitted fact, if McDonald's admitted it, or
14 you would be entitled to call evidence?
15
16 The reason that ought to come first, for all I know, if you
17 with the help of the PHLS report extract all the extra
18 facts which you want, all or at least some of them may then
19 be admitted by McDonald's. Until we know what they are, we
20 cannot know that. Getting the report in is not an end in
21 itself. It can only be a means towards some other end
22 which may, for all I know, be served by you being given
23 leave, if that is what I do, to plead extra allegations of
24 fact with regard to Preston and then some of them being
25 admitted.
26
27 The second practical consideration is this: If a counter
28 notice is served, and if I abbreviated time to, say, 4 p.m.
29 next Monday, the inevitable result of that would be that a
30 counter notice would be served on you if only to preserve
31 McDonald's position. Then we are immediately on to the
32 next stage which is waiting to see if you actually call the
33 maker of the statement, so, as Mr. Rampton suggested, it
34 goes into limbo anyway. The document does not become an
35 admissible document just because 20 days being up you are
36 faced with a counter notice -- quite the reverse.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I am going to do is I will leave it at
41 21 days largely because of those practicalities. If
42 I thought abridging would actually help push the case on,
43 I would have been inclined to abridge time. As it happens,
44 and I will say that it be deemed to run from 7th February,
45 that means that time for the counter notice runs out either
46 on the Monday when we come back after half-term leave or,
47 it might be argued, actually the following day, but I hope
48 it does not come down the wire in that way. It will mean
49 that we are back in court, and if there is any argument
50 such as whether it should be extended further or whether
51 you have leave for your amendments, at least there is an
52 opportunity to raise those matters before time actually
53 runs out.
54
55 You do not have to tell me anything about the way you
56 prepare your case, but it does actually help me sometimes
57 to grapple with what problems you may be facing if
58 I actually know. To what extent can you actually get
59 people to help you on the kind of point which is raised?
60 One disadvantage I am at is I have extremely competent
