Day 169 - 04 Oct 95 - Page 34
1 I would only add this, since it is by no means his first
2 putative return to court, although, of course, one has to
3 look back at the evidence, to remind oneself that the
4 Defendants are not starting all over again with their
5 continuing cross-examination of Mr. Fairgreave. It is not,
6 as it were, a new enterprise or should not be. Anyhow, I
7 will leave it at that. I will do whatever your Lordship
8 asked me to do in so far as it is humanly possible.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: There is a large amount of stuff to go through
11 before Mr. Fairgreave, and the fact he has been before
12 actually means extra work in checking back over transcripts
13 because I do not want to ask the same questions that we
14 asked before. I do not think we asked any.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There was not an awful lot of him.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: It all broke down in the middle, did it not?
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There was the best part of about a morning to
21 start with. Then it became apparent that he needed to get
22 further information. He came back on a subsequent occasion
23 and was only here about an hour. Quite frankly, I think
24 you should be able to be ready for Mr. Fairgreave on the
25 Monday. It has this advantage, that if I said that we sit
26 next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but I would be
27 content with Thursday and Friday as preparation days, then
28 what you would have to do is cope with Mr. Fairgreave on
29 the Monday and Tuesday and we will come back to Bath
30 documents on the Wednesday because it seems to me,
31 Mr. Rampton, you should be able to cover most of your
32 enquiries by then.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: I am pretty sure I will be able to give your
35 Lordship -----
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Then we will leave over meaning to Friday
38 20th when it is. It means you will probably get a couple
39 of days at the end of next week where you can brush up on
40 meaning and get to grips with Mr. Mehigan's evidence which
41 is to come in at the beginning of the next week.
42
43 If I can just come back to meaning again, how you approach
44 it is entirely a matter for you, but at the moment on the
45 transcripts you have three possible meanings: You have the
46 meaning for which I gave the Plaintiffs leave to amend; you
47 have the meaning which I contemplated as a possible
48 alternative in my judgment giving leave to amend; you have
49 the meaning which, in an attempt to help you, I spoke out
50 in open court at the beginning of this term which in many
51 respects might be thought to be midway between the two
52 meanings canvassed in my judgment getting leave to amend.
53 If you do not agree, if you do not bat for one of those
54 three meanings or something close to it, I would like you
55 to write down on paper what you say the meaning is.
56 I think I have said this before, as France Bacon said,
57 "writing maketh an exact man", or words to that effect,
58 and I think it will help you resolve it in your own mind,
59 it certainly always helps me, if I have to write it down.
60
