Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 44
1 MR. MORRIS: We are just very concerned about what happened with
2 this document and the amount of time and effort it took to
3 get this document, and we did not want to see that repeated
4 in the rest of the case. It is clearly relevant -- and at
5 the moment we are not being vindictive; Mr. Rampton has got
6 his job to do -- we would submit that he should not have
7 been able to do what he did with this document, bearing in
8 mind its relevance, and it would be useful to have some
9 kind of indication or guidance from the court in the light
10 of this whole process.
11
12 I think it should be remembered that we have made about
13 seven or eight formal applications for this document over
14 the last year.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am going to ask you to stop there. You can
17 come back to that document and make any comment on it you
18 wish, if a similar situation, namely, the disclosure of the
19 document which is partly blanked out, arises. Unless you
20 have a specific application to make this afternoon in
21 relation to it, that is what I see the context (if any) of
22 the complaint you are making.
23
24 MS. STEEL: I have something I wanted to say about the second
25 document in the bundle, the new sheet that was supplied at
26 the last minute, apparently, to explain what the
27 underlining meant.
28
29 I would request that the Plaintiffs be required to provide
30 a statement of some sort explaining how and when this
31 document came to be created, and why it was that it was not
32 disclosed until a long time after all the witnesses on this
33 subject had left the witness box. At the moment, this has
34 just suddenly appeared from nowhere, and there is no
35 explanation about it.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think I can make an order to that
38 effect. Where I think you can pray in aid any argument to
39 that effect, which I would invite you to remember, is when
40 you come to address me on the weight (if any) to be
41 attached to that particular document and, particularly, the
42 footnotes at the bottom explaining what the underlining is;
43 we will come back to your argument then.
44
45 MS. STEEL: I would specifically like the Plaintiffs to state
46 clearly what they are saying this document represents and
47 when it was created.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I cannot order the Plaintiffs to say that.
50 You can wait and hear what is said about it in the future.
51 If it is said by Mr. Rampton in reply to you, because he
52 comes last, I will give you an opportunity to answer it,
53 and you can make any comment which you wish that I should
54 attach little or no weight to the footnotes in the bottom
55 left-hand corner, if there has not been a witness who can
56 support them.
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I wonder if I might say something? If
59 the accusations which Mr. Morris has made -- no doubt, for
60 the transcript -- had been levelled at my solicitors,
