Day 132 - 07 Jun 95 - Page 40
1 MR. MORRIS: We do not think we have presently got more than an
2 hour's worth of questioning plus anything that might arise
3 from this report.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I want you to suggest to me when you would
6 like to resume to give yourself a chance to look at the
7 document.
8
9 MR. MORRIS: Half past 2.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will resume at half past 2. During that
12 period of time I would like you to give a bit of thought to
13 how long you are likely to be cross-examining Mrs. Mead
14 for. I will remind you that Mr. Rampton estimated that she
15 would be half a day in-chief. You were not able to give an
16 estimate when we talked about it a couple of weeks ago, or
17 three weeks ago, about how long you would be in
18 cross-examination, so I suggested, query, a couple of
19 days.
20
21 I do not know whether that is likely to be accurate or
22 not. I do not think it is suggested that anyone can be
23 interposed tomorrow or Friday. In any event, Ms. Steel has
24 something she wants to attend to on Friday morning. So
25 will you have tomorrow and Friday as preparation days
26 which, it seems to me, ought to be enough for you to finish
27 any preparation you need for the cross-examination of
28 Mrs. Mead and Mr. Stein.
29
30 What I am anxious to do, although I hope I have made it
31 clear that I am content that you should have additional
32 time where you require it to prepare for cross-examination,
33 what I do not want to do is have another week next week
34 where we lose, say, a couple of days. You do not want to
35 fill any of that time, unless you change your mind over the
36 mid-day adjournment, you told me the other day you do not
37 want to fill any of that time with interlocutory
38 applications which you have stacked up waiting to be dealt
39 with.
40
41 So, I would like you to think about how long you think you
42 will be cross-examining Mrs. Mead. I would like
43 Mr. Rampton, if he would be so kind, to think about whether
44 there is a possibility of imposing anyone, be it one of the
45 employees or managers he is going to call, if we are going
46 to have a couple of days then. In other words, I would
47 like everyone to think of ways of we might usefully use any
48 free time we have in the second half of next week.
49
50 I am not inviting any further comment now. I would just
51 like to talk about it when we get to the end of
52 Mr. Purslow's evidence this afternoon.
53
54 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will resume at half past 2.
57
58 (Luncheon Adjournment)
59
60 MR. MORRIS: We are just on your statement. In page 19, the
