Day 171 - 11 Oct 95 - Page 49
1 employment evidence apart from the two Canadians, who are
2 coming at the beginning of November.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We have Mr. Whittle.
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Whittle, my Lord, I would guess that,
7 including cross-examination, he cannot take more -- he
8 certainly cannot last a morning; there is no way, because
9 his statement will now either be read or taken as read. We
10 have not been served with any additional particulars;
11 therefore, there will not be any questions, apart from a
12 couple of questions which your Lordship has called
13 "settling questions" in chief. That will be the end of
14 him. It will then fall to me to cross-examine him which, I
15 have to say, I cannot think will last more than a few
16 minutes, three-quarters of an hour maybe, and I would
17 anticipate that Mr. Whittle would be free to go at about
18 half past 11 or quarter to 12. Thereafter, it looks as
19 though we have two and a half or more days blank.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We have "meaning" on Friday.
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: We have "meaning" on Friday, right. That means we
24 have the rest of Wednesday and the whole of Thursday blank
25 at the moment. I must say, though I say nothing about the
26 end of this week and I understand Ms. Steel has been ill
27 and that creates a difficulty and so on and so forth ----
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We are in agreement about that.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: That is water under the bridge, but it being the
32 case that we are going to lose Friday of this week as well,
33 I am very unhappy about only being offered Mr. Whittle for
34 next week. I do not believe that it is proper, after all
35 this time and we have just finished a two month vacation
36 and when Mr. Morris has been on notice that we intended to
37 finish our employment evidence almost exactly at the time
38 that we shall, it is not proper or right that he should not
39 be able to schedule more than a quarter or half a day's
40 witness for the whole of those two days. Goodness knows
41 what sort of omen it creates for the future and given that
42 -- we said on 7th August that we expected to finish our
43 employment evidence about the 9th. That is more or less
44 what we have achieved. I am frankly astonished that
45 Mr. Whittle is all that is offered for next week.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would like you to do, Mr. Morris, is
48 to think about how we can fill more time on Wednesday and
49 Thursday of next week.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: I was going to try and schedule someone for
52 Thursday and I have not had any success yet, but I am going
53 to be working on it.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like you to do your very best for two
56 reasons: The first is that I am anxious to avoid losing a
57 day next week if we can avoid it, bearing in mind that we
58 are going to lose three -- I say "lose" -- we are going to
59 have three preparation days in the following week in any
60 event because that is the half term week. That is the
