Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 43
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am sorry, I am having difficulty
2 understanding just what is at stake. What is it that you
3 suggest the Defendants were asking which they are not
4 entitled to have because of legal professional privilege?
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: There are two points in 3 my Lord, one is meetings
7 attended -- dates I suppose is what it means -- which had
8 nothing to do with the issues in this case, that is the
9 objection.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will hear what Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris
12 have to say about it.
13
14 MR. RAMPTON: There is a further ground, which is this ----
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I was going to say, if it is every
17 meeting or event which concerned McDonald's.
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: That is different. Then, my Lord ----
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know. This is what I want to see, if the
22 words were inserted.
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: Then, my Lord, one moves on to a different
25 territory, which is the territory of privilege. So far as
26 the witnesses we intend to call to deal with those relevant
27 meetings, that privilege will be waived. It has not yet,
28 in fact, been waived but it will be waived as soon as they
29 go into the witness box and give evidence about it. In
30 anticipation of the difficulties, the administrative or
31 practical difficulties, to which such a course might give
32 rise, though it is a course which on the authorities
33 strictly we believe we are entitled to follow, we have
34 decided to waive the privilege in associated or connected
35 documents related to those occasions.
36
37 We have done that in two ways: we have done it by
38 disclosing, and we are in the process of disclosing further
39 parts, those parts of the notes of the inquiry agents which
40 are relevant to those occasions and to the issues in the
41 action on those occasions. We did not need to do that. We
42 could have waited until the witness got into the witness
43 box and gave the evidence, but we did not do that. We have
44 done it also in relation to certain photographs taken by Mr
45 Allan Clare, which are also privileged documents. We have
46 done that in advance of the witness getting into the
47 witness box because we fully intend to call them, and
48 because if we do it when the witness is in the witness box
49 then it is obvious that there may have to be an
50 adjournment, and so on and so forth. We took the course
51 recommended by one of the text books, which is to make the
52 waiver in advance of the giving of the evidence.
53
54 So far as the two inquiry agents are concerned, the third
55 one is the anonymous one; he or she is anonymous to us and
56 must remain so. But so far as the two the Defendants know
57 about were not anonymous, that is to say, Frances Tiller
58 Davidson as she was, and the other lady whose name is
59 Michelle Hooker, we do not intend to call them as
60 witnesses. All information relating to them, all the
