Day 206 - 22 Jan 96 - Page 62
1 of the people you mentioned you wanted to call, if you
2 could trace them.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: This has only come into my possession literally on
5 Friday, last Friday, so I have not been able to speak to
6 him direct yet. But he had passed it on to Mr. Logan. All
7 I am saying is, do I have to put all these matters to this
8 witness, or, if I do not, does it mean that the Plaintiffs
9 are going to get a right of rebuttal if we bring Mr. Olive
10 to verify this?
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, they certainly get a right of rebuttal
13 if you have not put to -- or, certainly, I can imagine they
14 will apply, or might do, to call witnesses in rebuttal, if
15 Mr. Rampton thinks that is the appropriate course to take,
16 if, after a number of McDonald's witnesses from Bath are
17 called, you produce a statement from another potential
18 witness and say you want to call him, and the matters in
19 the statement have not been put to the witnesses.
20
21 MR. MORRIS: I had indicated when I disclosed this on Saturday
22 evening (my first opportunity) to the Plaintiffs, that we
23 did intend that: "Mr. Olive is prepared to verify the
24 letter handed to Mr. Logan and passed on to myself on
25 19th January 1996". So we have given them advance notice.
26
27 MR. RAMPTON: Our copy of this letter was timed -- I got it this
28 morning -- the fax time was one minute or two minutes past
29 midnight on Saturday night. What are we supposed to have
30 done in the meantime?
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You had better put it to the witness. If you
33 are thinking of seeking to call Mr. Olive, you had better
34 at least put what is in the letter. If you obtain a
35 statement from him in due course, serve it on Barlow Lyde &
36 Gilbert and then call Mr. Olive. At least, hopefully,
37 these matters will have been put to one or more McDonald's
38 witnesses. If he then, in his statement and in his
39 evidence, makes other allegations and Mr. Rampton applies
40 to call someone to rebut them, I will deal with that
41 application as it arises.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I just wanted to save time, really. So I
44 will put these two.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you had better put them; otherwise,
47 the fact will be that they have not been put to any witness
48 and there are going to be applications to recall, which I
49 would like to avoid.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I just make the point now that now we are on
54 Bath witnesses, if you are going to get a witness
55 statement, the sooner the better.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: Yes. The trouble is having any direct contact with
58 him -----
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know. I have said lots of times that
