Day 164 - 26 Sep 95 - Page 55
1 confidentiality to the film producer who is not Anne Tobin
2 but a lady called Jane Gabriel. Your Lordship said that
3 your Lordship would decide the application for discovery in
4 the light of the representations, if any, that Ms. Gabriel
5 or Channel 4 might like to make to your Lordship at the
6 start of this term.
7
8 In the event, it appears that Mr. Morris has returned those
9 transcripts to Ms. Gabriel -- if I am wrong, he will
10 correct me -- thus pre-empting, aborting, my application
11 for discovery because if Mr. Morris has got rid of the
12 documents it means I cannot get discovery of them
13 save -----
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is not right, is it? You may not get
16 discovery under Ord. 24 but you could issue a subpoena ---
17
18 MR. RAMPTON: That is the point.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- and serve it and have Ms. Gabriel attend
21 unless she applies to set aside the subpoena with the
22 documents ahead of any use of them.
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: That is where the substance of my application or
25 my mention, if your Lordship likes, ends up, because what
26 it means is, and your Lordship said that Ms. Tobin should
27 not be called until such time as we had had a chance to
28 look at all 700 pages of transcript, whatever they were in
29 any event, that until such time as we have subpoenaed
30 Ms. Gabriel, and that matter has either been set aside or
31 she comes to court with the documents and we have
32 subsequently had time to digest the documents, the
33 Defendants must not schedule Ms. Tobin to give evidence.
34 I think it only regrettable, if I may say so, that
35 Mr. Morris should have returned the documents in the light
36 of your Lordship's observations at the end of last term,
37 but there it is. That is spilt milk.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: All I can say is that they were lent to me.
40 I signed an undertaking. Ms. Gabriel demanded them back
41 off me. They were not the subject of an order. I had no
42 alternative but to give them back. I think I made it
43 perfectly clear that I wanted them to be available, but
44 that was not her wishes. That is all I have to say really.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. You may have been right that you had no
47 alternative to return them, but what it seems to me is that
48 it would be counterproductive to call Ms. Tobin before
49 McDonald's have had some time to take whatever process they
50 think is appropriate to get Ms. Gabriel and the documents
51 here.
52
53 MS. STEEL: I was going to say, to save time, we have no
54 objection it that, though obviously within the limits. I
55 mean, if the Plaintiffs leave it for another three months,
56 then -----
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you are prepared to say that you propose
59 to advise your clients to take some such procedure, then
60 I will say that I do not want to hear Ms. Tobin until you
