Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 16


     
     1        going to make an application either that the Plaintiffs be
     2        ordered to provide them for us or that the court pay for
     3        them out of public funds -- we will come on to that -- we
     4        believe if we do not have the transcripts, it will be
     5        virtually impossible for us to continue this case on any
     6        kind of practical level or on the basis of equality, of any
     7        kind of equality, and if the case grinds to a halt, it is
     8        certainly not what we want.
     9
    10        We are committed to fighting this case to the best of our
    11        ability to the end.  We believe that the Plaintiffs must
    12        know (and if they did not know, they must now know, having
    13        heard what we are saying) of the effect of us not having
    14        transcripts.  Therefore, of course, we are asking them to
    15        support our application today that would result in us
    16        getting transcripts, rather than see the trial increase in
    17        length and cost, and the inequality becomes so manifest
    18        that the trial will be an abuse of process to continue.
    19
    20        The court may feel an inference can be drawn that the
    21        Plaintiffs are becoming disinterested in the action because
    22        of the progress of the case and the effect of the case on
    23        their Company.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That cannot be relevant to whether I have the
    26        power to order the Plaintiffs to provide you with a
    27        transcript or bar them from using one if you do not get
    28        one, can it?
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:  But if they oppose this application, knowing the
    31        effect of it on our conduct of the case -- we will come to
    32        that.
    33
    34        To come to the specific, obviously, the court has an
    35        inherent jurisdiction to ensure fairness.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You are coming to your argument about my
    38        powers now, are you?
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Look, we will take our five-minute break in a
    43        moment, but do you have a copy of the ruling which I gave
    44        on 4th July?
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you look at page 5, I summarised, I hope
    49        accurately, what your four applications were with regard to
    50        transcripts of the evidence.  "The first is an application 
    51        for an order that McDonald's do provide them with daily 
    52        transcripts. 
    53
    54        Secondly, they apply for me to make a provision from public
    55        funds in order to purchase copies of the transcripts on
    56        their behalf or to give them the funds for them to demand
    57        and pay the charges for transcripts.
    58
    59        Thirdly, if they are unsuccessful on either of those first
    60        two applications, they ask me to say that I should not have

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