Day 251 - 17 May 96 - Page 35
1 matter very much is to tempt fate, so far as the outcome of
2 the case is concerned, I mean.
3
4 My problem is really is whether I would need to deal with
5 that proposition, it not having been a part of the case
6 really until this evidence was given today.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is what concerned me, because it seems
9 to me that is tantamount to saying the Defendants cannot
10 rely on it because it has not been pleaded. The rationale
11 then continuing, because it has not been pleaded the Judge
12 having refused leave to amend to allege it, the Plaintiff's
13 have not dealt with it.
14
15 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that may be. It is something I would not
16 like to answer now. I would certainly not want to be
17 obstructive for the sake of it, but I do want to think
18 about whether it puts me in a difficulty that matters. If
19 it does, then I should have to make an argument that,
20 whether it is an amendment on paper or in one's head, it
21 should be disallowed and that part of the case disallowed
22 simply on the grounds of real prejudice.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: My purpose in raising it now is not to
25 persuade anyone to one view or another, but so that you can
26 think about it and so that Miss Steel and Mr. Morris can
27 think about it as well. What I suggest you do, Miss Steel
28 and Mr. Morris, is look at it sooner rather than later, but
29 not at this minute, look at the ruling I made on 25th July
30 1995.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: I remember it very clearly, yes. If I could just
33 say that the statements of, for example Susanna Hecks and
34 Sue Branford were served, for example Sue Branford's
35 statement was served on 25th February, so it has
36 effectively part of our case from then.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. My point is this; it is one thing to say
39 anything in the statements is taken to be pleaded, but
40 where I have expressly refused you leave to amend to make
41 an allegation, I do not think that can be so.
42
43 MR. RAMPTON: It goes further than that. What struck me today,
44 which was unfortunate really, because the Defendants have
45 been in touch with Miss Branford for a long time now, I
46 mean this is one of the things I may have to rely on, I am
47 afraid, is that at last one of Mr. Morris' and Miss Steel's
48 late pigeons has come home to roost. Miss Branford said
49 today for the first time, nowhere else in her statement, it
50 was in answer to a question from your Lordship, that she
51 understood what I call gallery forest, whatever you like,
52 along the Araguaia River for example, to be exactly the
53 same stuff as one finds up in the Amazon Basin. That is a
54 proposition which I have never had to face before. I may
55 well want to go and get some evidence oh the effect that
56 that is rubbish, if it is rubbish.
57
58 MS. STEEL: Can I just say, in terms of Mr. Rampton being able
59 to deal with it, the matters about beef coming from
60 cattle-reared on ex rain forest land, he has had that
