Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 29


     
     1        have 21 days to do it in and I cannot abridge the time, or
     2        maybe I can abridge time; you might think I can.
     3
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  I think your Lordship does have a power under the
     5        rules to abridge as to extend time.  If your Lordship is
     6        even beginning to think about that, I have an awful lot to
     7        say about time when the Civil Evidence Act notice was
     8        served.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will come back to that in a moment.  The
    11        other hurdle in your way at the moment, which you again may
    12        be able to get over, is that, while not having decided the
    13        matter, the authorities which Mr. Rampton has got in his
    14        bundle are pretty persuasive that you are not entitled to
    15        call evidence in relation to a fact upon which you base
    16        your case, or facts upon which you base your case for which
    17        you have pleaded and which have then been admitted by the
    18        other side.  It is for that reason that I have urged you to
    19        consider whether you wish to plead additional facts.  Then
    20        you can see if those are admitted.  If you use the PLH
    21        statement to take from it each allegation of fact upon
    22        which you say you would want to rely, and then say, "Under
    23        that part of our pleading which refers to Preston which is
    24        admitted, we would like paragraphs A to X as follows, these
    25        allegations of fact in the PLHS report", then I would
    26        consider that.
    27
    28        Do you want to deal now with the question of abridgement of
    29        time for a counter notice?  I think I said, too hastily,
    30        that I could not shorten the 21 days.  There are rules
    31        which apply generally which allow for abridgement of
    32        periods of time or extension of periods of time in certain
    33        circumstances.
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  Whatever would help to get the case moving as
    36        quickly as possible really.  I could put up a case for why
    37        it should be abridged.  I think we all know the reason.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will hear Mr. Rampton first.  What is the
    40        difficulty about ----
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  Again, I know your Lordship must be absolutely fed
    43        up with hearing me grumbling about the conduct of the
    44        Defendants, but there is again a principle here.  I do not
    45        know how long the Defendants have had that report.  It must
    46        be months and months.  It is certainly since before the
    47        trial began.  They have known perfectly well about the
    48        Civil Evidence Act notices for a very long time, not least
    49        because we have served Civil Evidence Act notices in
    50        respect of literally hundreds of documents.  That they 
    51        should now demand as of right that we should have less time 
    52        than we are, on the face of it, entitled to under the 
    53        rules, it does seem to me a most undignified and offensive
    54        way of proceeding.
    55
    56        That said, if your Lordship thinks that it would assist the
    57        ordinary conduct of the case that we should do it within,
    58        let us say, two weeks, we do need to have time to think
    59        about it (and there is much else to do in this case),
    60        rather than three, then so be it.  I repeat what I said

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