Day 164 - 26 Sep 95 - Page 13


     
     1        witnesses still to come.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am just making the point, Mr. Rampton,
     4        which I know you are well aware that the further you get on
     5        through the trial, it is just human nature to get
     6        more disinclined to have the introduction of new material.
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, can I say this?  I am very unhappy with
    11        the end of October for this reason:  If there is any
    12        substance in what Mr. North says, I myself will have to try
    13        to find somebody to give evidence to answer it.  That is
    14        not going to be easy if it is going to be an expert.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When it comes, I will consider whether it is
    17        too late.
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  I am grateful to your Lordship.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:  I think it should be borne in mind that the
    22        Plaintiffs had a very long time to sort out getting a
    23        further statement from Jarretts.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When it comes, if Mr. Rampton says it is too
    26        late, I will consider his argument and I will consider your
    27        answer to it.  I am not going to say now that if it comes
    28        at the end of October that will be all right.  If you have
    29        finished on Store Hygiene and the employment practices,
    30        before you move on, I want to ask Mr. Rampton if there is
    31        anything he wants to say about the extra Washington Post
    32        document; there may or may not be.
    33
    34   MR. RAMPTON:  No.  I have so little detail here.  This in a
    35        sense in a different category because for once it does fall
    36        somewhere near the heart of the case.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I have to say that is how I had seen
    39        it.
    40
    41   MR. RAMPTON:  There is no doubt about that.  All I would say is
    42        this, that one example at one restaurant of over 10,000
    43        restaurants in the United States, and goodness knows how
    44        many throughout the world, in 1995, about the end of May,
    45        beginning of June 1995, actually really proves absolutely
    46        nothing.  Whether it is true or false, I do not know.  But
    47        for somebody to have closed a restaurant, it looks like --
    48        if this be true, of course, it may not be -- because of an
    49        allegation of unclean food contact surfaces, one restaurant
    50        in Washington DC at the end of May 1995, in relation to 
    51        justification of a pamphlet published by these Defendants 
    52        in 1989, really, it is a matter for question whether it 
    53        helps your Lordship decide the issues in this case.
    54
    55        I say that not because in the ordinary way if this had come
    56        along at some earlier point I might have been able to deal
    57        with it but, of course, it does mean if it is pleaded, then
    58        I have to make enquiries once again in the United States.
    59        Really, I ask the same question as I asked yesterday,
    60        whether it is a proper and fit thing to introduce at this

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