Day 280 - 17 Jul 96 - Page 15
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When I have decided and given my judgment,
3 then everybody who is contemplating, anyone who is
4 contemplating a contribution proceedings or, if they are
5 taken, contemplating what action to take in response to
6 them, has the benefit of what I have decided and the
7 reasons I have given you for it, and one has to put that on
8 the other side of the balance of the argument you are
9 putting forward, has one not?
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11 MR. STARMER: That is right. If the Plaintiffs fail entirely
12 then obviously third party proceedings could not be an
13 issue.
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15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There are advantages in bringing separate
16 contribution proceedings when you know what the Court has
17 decided in the main action, just as there are advantages in
18 coming into the main action.
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20 MR. STARMER: My Lord, that is right. The alternative scenario
21 is that the Plaintiffs win, and win significantly,
22 substantial damages that the Defendants would want a
23 contribution, and that then fresh proceedings would have to
24 be launched and then you will not have to go back into how
25 many of the issues were then going to have to be
26 relitigated, including, presumably, calling all the
27 publication witnesses again within the new proceedings to
28 repeat much of the same evidence as they have already given
29 to this Court over however long a period they did so, and
30 the advantage of joining at this stage is that most of the
31 water is already under the bridge and this Court is
32 appraised of all the facts. There is also another
33 advantage, that one does not know who any subsequent trial
34 would be in front of.
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36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, I have to say, I will not refer to
37 whose law it is, but it would almost certainly turn out to
38 be me.
39
40 MR. STARMER: But it usually would, with proceedings such as
41 those, in any ordinary case, but it may not be for one
42 reason or another. It really may not be, and then one gets
43 the prospect of different evidence and different tribunals
44 potentially coming to a different, or slightly different,
45 result which is not just as between the parties. And so,
46 in short form, my submission is that with this Court
47 appraised of so much of the evidence on top of so many of
48 the issues, and having heard most of the witnesses that
49 would be relevant to this issue, the third party issue, it
50 really would be quicker and more efficient to join them at
51 this stage, allow them to make their submissions to you in
52 the Autumn along with everybody else, and have the whole
53 issue decided as between the parties without requiring
54 either Court time or the Defendants to pursue separate
55 proceedings and repeating a lot of what has already gone
56 on.
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58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: To what extent am I to take any account of
59 the fact that on a number of occasions Ms. Steel and Mr.
60 Morris stress their own lack of funds? To what extent am I
