Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 82


     
     1        of immediate.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I cannot deal with that this evening.
     4        I cannot sit too late this evening.
     5
     6   MR. MORRIS:  No, I did not want to do it now, just to say that.
     7        I think the last thing that I forgot to say about the
     8        accident statistics was that, you may remember, the US ones
     9        were based on compensation claims.  They were not actual
    10        general statistics about accidents; they were statistics
    11        about ones that resulted in claims.  I did forget to say I
    12        do not believe they fulfilled the order that you made or
    13        certainly enquiry that you made of the Plaintiffs to seek
    14        out information statistics.  There is also, if
    15        I remember -- yes, that is the point I had to make on
    16        that.  I think those were the main things that were
    17        outstanding that I forgot to bring up on Friday.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    20
    21   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I will not deal with any of those now,
    22        except to say that my recollection is, without looking it
    23        up, that what your Lordship asked us to do was to get the
    24        best accident statistics we could and your Lordship would
    25        review them in due course and express a view whether they
    26        enable you to make a sensible decision about that question.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  You may have mentioned it on Friday but
    29        I think I raised it then.  Do you remember I thought you
    30        were going to get some further information on the basis of
    31        the difficulty and in what way a sample of an area might be
    32        done, if at all.
    33
    34   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  My Lord, we will do that.  There is,
    35        obviously, a logistical or practical problem.  It is not
    36        one that we will run away from if your Lordship says we
    37        must face it.  All I am wanting to do is to provide your
    38        Lordship with a sensible basis for making a proper decision
    39        in this case on the incidence and type of accidents,
    40        perhaps, by a process of extrapolation overall.
    41
    42        I do not see any reason in anything your Lordship said so
    43        far to give the Defendants chapter and verse on every
    44        accident that has ever happened in America over the last 10
    45        years.
    46
    47   MR. MORRIS:  We were not asking for that.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, quite apart from anything else, it may be
    50        in my decision -- I will say no more than that at the 
    51        moment -- I will want some further enquiry made as to how 
    52        one could get a test sample which might give some useful 
    53        indication of what is happening across the country.
    54
    55   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, perhaps that is something we can come
    56        back to.  My Lord, there are three things I should
    57        mention:  The first is when should Mr. Bowes return?  At
    58        the moment tomorrow is a blank day.  At the moment we have
    59        Dr. Pattison of Sun Valley coming on Wednesday.  I am
    60        hopeful, but again hopeful rather than expectant, that we

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