Day 110 - 29 Mar 95 - Page 23
1 in the meantime. I would be surprised if there is any
2 disagreement with that from Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris ---
3
4 MR. MORRIS: No objection.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- because it is a course we have taken with
7 regard to other witnesses without mishap in the past. In
8 fact, they might welcome it.
9
10 I will leave that to you, Mr. Rampton, I think.
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: I am grateful to your Lordship. I would have to
13 discuss it with Mr. Brinley-Codd, obviously, because, as I
14 say, my principal concern is the convenience of witnesses
15 already scheduled to give evidence during May and June. It
16 might be, I do not know, that it would appeal to your
17 Lordship to have those witnesses where they are and then to
18 come to publication in July. I am saying that off the top
19 of my head without having thought about it, but that would
20 be another possibility.
21
22 At the moment I have no witnesses scheduled for the last
23 week of June and the whole of July for the reason that I do
24 not know at the moment what witnesses I need to call.
25 I will not know that until I know which of the Defendants'
26 witnesses are coming to court.
27
28 MS. STEEL: I just wanted to say something about this business
29 about the witnesses now having been scheduled. When we
30 asked about this previously, we asked the Plaintiffs to
31 give a draft to us for our comments before it was handed to
32 you, and I think you indicated that they should do that.
33 But, in actual fact, we were not given this until it had
34 already also gone to you. So we did not have a chance to
35 have any input into it.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. There is no reason why you should not do
38 it now. I do not think the fact that it was given to me
39 meant that you were being shut off from making your
40 contribution. It is helpful to me to see what the
41 Plaintiffs have in mind. You can make your suggestions to
42 their legal representatives about it and if there is an
43 issue between you at the end of the day I can seek to
44 mediate on it. I purposely used the word "mediate" because
45 I am not at the moment, at any rate, putting myself in a
46 position where I order that who should call which witnesses
47 next.
48
49 So, if your understanding had been the moment I am given a
50 sheet of paper like that with things on it, any further
51 consultation between you is implicitly barred, I think that
52 is wrong.
53
54 MR. MORRIS: In reality, it becomes tablets of stone very
55 quickly.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may be that once it is there and a
58 tentative arrangement is made, there is a reluctance to
59 withdraw from it, but you can still voice, first of all,
60 I suggest to Mrs. Brinley-Codd and then, if there is no
