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

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