Day 002 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 57


     
     1        off the top of my head.
 
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think that was rather different.  There
              was some interrogatory for discovery which I was not
     3        prepared to order if she was going to be called, because
              I thought it was an unnecessary step when she could be
     4        asked about it in the witness box.  But if the time came
              when you knew that you were not going to call her, then
     5        I wanted to reconsider discovery and interrogatories.
 
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am sorry, that is my fault,
              I misremembered what had happened, but it alters not at
     7        all the substance of what I am saying which is this, that
              if Dr. Neil Barnard is to come to court, then my task at
     8        the moment, which is the relatively easy one of calling
              Dr. Sydney Arnott and the other experts to deal with what
     9        is in Dr. Barnard's statement and explain it to your
              Lordship why it is unreliable and should be rejected, is a
    10        completely different one because I then have to put all of
              that to Dr. Barnard.  That means I need a week's notice at
    11        the very minimum.
 
    12   MR. MORRIS:  It is our intention to call Neil Barnard, Brian
              Lipsett, Steve Gardiner.
    13
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let us take it in steps.  I would like you
    14        to inform the plaintiffs and let me know either tomorrow
              evening or on Friday morning if there are any of your
    15        witnesses whom you propose to call with regard to
              recycling and waste, just that compartment.  Then sometime
    16        around early or middle of next week, I would like you to
              tell the plaintiffs and tell me if there are any of your
    17        witnesses with regard to nutrition whom you intend to
              call.
    18
         MR. MORRIS:  Any of them or just the ones under the Civil Act
    19        Evidence Notice?
 
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Any ones where you have given a Civil
              Evidence Act Notice.  In fact, what I would like you to do
    21        is to say which ones you intend to call.  That covers ones
              who are not under Civil Evidence Act notice in case for
    22        any reason you have had a second thought about wanting to
              call them or being able to call them.
    23
         MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, there is this further consideration and
    24        what flows from it the promises which one gets must be
              considered firm promises and not merely expressions of
    25        wish or intention.  As your Lordship observed earlier, if
              these people are to be called as witnesses, I shall need 
    26        to try to arrange to have my experts at court while they 
              are giving their evidence.  That is not just a question of 
    27        my personal convenience; that is a considerable nuisance
              and inconvenience for busy professional scientists.  They
    28        need to be given as much notice as possible.  It may not
              be possible, but to be told at this late stage in the case
    29        that I have to find a date in, what, the third week of the
              trial for my experts like Professor Duxbury or whoever it
    30        is, to be in court while they listen to Mr. Lipsett,
              really does create the very greatest difficulty.  The same

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