Day 120 - 03 May 95 - Page 66
1 which you must have a decision one way or another; for
2 instance, Brazilian rainforest beef, just to give it a
3 short term, and then amend what you are going to apply for,
4 which is essentially opposed effectively all the way down
5 the line. But put your things in order of precedence and
6 give some thought about where you want them in. My own
7 feeling is that they ought to be dealt with, i.e. I ought
8 to hear the argument whether or not I give a decision
9 straightaway because I can give the decision at the
10 beginning of any morning before we carry on with the
11 witness. But you ought to be aiming at not later than the
12 end of Mrs. Mead's week or the beginning of Mr. Stein's,
13 but when you sit down and make your list you may tell me
14 that there is good reason for trying to find a day
15 earlier. It is not necessarily something which has to be
16 planned. We do not have to fix a day. All you have to do
17 is get ready, and Mr. Rampton has to have your list so he
18 knows he is ready to argue everything on it. Then, for
19 instance, if we found that we were finishing Miss Barnes --
20 this is an example; I am not suggesting it will be so -- on
21 the afternoon or the middle of Thursday 25th, one could
22 say, "Are we ready to deal with some interlocutory matters
23 anyway?" and argue those on Friday 26th. I think it would
24 be sensible to try and get your mind around how urgent some
25 of these matters are.
26
27 MR. RAMPTON: The other thing is whether your Lordship would
28 want me to find a witness for the first three days of that
29 week beginning the 19th.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would like to do is find a witness, or
32 it might be two, possibly people who are still in the
33 employment of the Second Plaintiff and can be got at short
34 notice with less inconvenience than would apply to other
35 witnesses. Let the defendants know whom you put, as it
36 were, on the reserve list and let me know with a view to
37 calling them and having them cross-examined at relatively
38 short notice. I will leave it to you whom you think is
39 suitable.
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: We can do that.
42
43 MS. STEEL: I do not know if I misunderstood what you were
44 saying. I thought you only asked about Mr. Fairgreaves in
45 the first place. I did have a concern about Mr. Stein,
46 which is ----
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What about Mr. Stein then?
49
50 MS. STEEL: The concern is that -- I mean, I believe we said he
51 may take up to eight days, and if he is called in that week
52 and comes back the following week for cross-examination but
53 then he gets put off until the end of July, again that is a
54 situation where we have to go over all the evidence again
55 to refresh our memories about what he has given as evidence
56 in the witness box so far; the things that we have covered
57 and we still have to cover, and all kinds of things like
58 that, and we really prefer, wherever possible, to avoid
59 splitting the cross-examination of the witnesses.
60
