Day 279 - 12 Jul 96 - Page 23
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Right we will take a short break now.
2
3 (Short adjournment)
4
5 MR. MORRIS: Can I just say a small point? That in following
6 what Mr. Rampton said today, and what he said in
7 cross-examination of Miss Steel, that I did contact the
8 people that do the McSpotlight yesterday. They are
9 prepared to put the plaintiff's witness statements on the
10 site if they get copies from the plaintiffs, or if they
11 were on disk it would be very helpful. So they do not want
12 to be seen to be putting just the defence witness
13 statements. So that is an offer that is open to the other
14 side.
15
16 The only problem I have got with the US video, I keep
17 doing this, I keep bringing the wrong copy. I don't know
18 if Mrs Brinley-Codd has actually got a copy of the one
19 which was -- I don't think she has.
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: May I say it can be left for this reason, if
22 Mr. Morris wants to confine his Civil Evidence Act notice
23 to certain parts, it would be our intention to ask your
24 Lordship's leave to let us put a Civil Evidence Act notice
25 on the rest of it, so that the whole thing is in.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, was that your intention? Or did you
28 intend to put a Civil Evidence Act notice on all of it but
29 you were hoping only to read parts of it; which is it?
30
31 MR. MORRIS: Well, I mean we are easy going. It does strike me
32 that Mr. Rampton has argued that if something is clearly
33 irrelevant then it cannot be admissible by any route, and
34 much of the material that we have not highlighted is
35 irrelevant waffle, frankly. But it does not bother us,
36 because we are quite happy to say that the whole thing can
37 be admissible. But we did want to point out the bits
38 specific bits which we wished to rely on, and that is all
39 really.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It seems to me it all ought to go in. I mean,
42 I can sort out what helps me and what does not in due
43 course.
44
45 MS. STEEL: Can I just say that Mr. Morris said that without
46 asking me. My personal position is that if the plaintiffs
47 want to rely on all of it they should disclose the whole
48 tape, so we can at least see all of it and see if there is
49 anything else that is relevant to the context.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have to say, I was not entirely clear in my
52 mind whether you wanted to rely on it as a Civil Evidence
53 Act statement, or you were saying that Mr. Rensi was
54 someone who was authorised to stay these things on behalf
55 of the company and you were going to treat them as
56 admissions against interest.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: That is fine, but we weren't sure what the law was
59 on that.
60
