Day 127 - 23 May 95 - Page 11


     
     1        speaks for itself really.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  So, my Lord, I do not accede to the suggestion
     6        that Mr. Morris should be allowed to defer his
     7        cross-examination to some later period.  There could have
     8        been a properly qualified person, no doubt, with all the
     9        skills to teach the youngster how to use the frame in place
    10        at any rate by the end of last week.  Mr. Morris declined
    11        that opportunity and he has only himself to blame for the
    12        difficulty he now finds himself in.
    13
    14   MS. STEEL:   In response to what Mr. Rampton has just said, I
    15        want to say it is actually my experience that when we ask
    16        the Plaintiffs to do things, they are not particularly
    17        helpful about doing them except when it has some advantage
    18        to them.  They have not copied lots of videos for us.
    19        I think there was one, apart from the ones where they were
    20        copying them because they had lost the copies that we had
    21        already given them.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When did you receive the last of the health
    24        and safety videos?
    25
    26   MS. STEEL:  Well, sometime ago, but we have always made it clear
    27        right before this case started that we had not -- I mean,
    28        you will remember that we were making applications for
    29        adjournments in order that we could read all the documents
    30        and see all the documents before the case started.  The
    31        adjournments were not granted.  We were advised to do it,
    32        as we were doing along, and that is what we have been
    33        doing.
    34
    35        I have watched, I think, one or two of them a considerable
    36        time ago.  I did not watch them all.  I did not have the
    37        time to watch them all at the time and I would like to do
    38        so before finishing the cross-examination of Mrs. Barnes.
    39
    40        I would reiterate as well the point about the documents
    41        served last week.  We do consider that we do want to ask
    42        witnesses questions about them, get their opinion of
    43        matters that are raised in them, and also ask expert
    44        witnesses about matters in them.
    45
    46        I do not know, it just seems that yet again by something
    47        being the Plaintiffs' fault in disclosing documents late,
    48        Mr. Rampton is turning it around to be an attack on us,
    49        where if we disclose a document late, it is an attack on
    50        us.  It seems like we are to blame for everything.  They 
    51        could have disclosed them a considerable time ago. 
    52        Mr. Rampton could have read it several months ago and 
    53        thought:  "Oh, I ought to disclose this several months
    54        ago".  I do not think there is anything else.
    55
    56             (For ruling, please see separate transcript)
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will break for five minutes now and then we
    59        will proceed with the evidence.
    60

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