Day 270 - 28 Jun 96 - Page 34
1 matter which concerns both of you and the First and Second
2 Plaintiff only. It concerns, it is only too obvious to
3 say, the people against whom you are contemplating third
4 party proceedings, if I allow them at this stage in the
5 trial. That means you have got to have a proper notice of
6 application served upon the people you have in mind as
7 third parties. That is the first point.
8
9 Secondly, the application should have attached to it -- I
10 have not checked the rules -- a copy of your draft third
11 party notice, in particular setting out what relief you
12 would propose to claim against them, because at the moment
13 my very brief look at your notice of intention to apply for
14 leave, "If we succeed in this application, the agents will
15 be liable to McDonald's for damages if the Plaintiffs win
16 the main claim in the action." That is a matter for
17 McDonald's whether they claim damages against the inquiry
18 agents.
19
20 So, you have to think, if you have not done so already,
21 just what relief or remedy you would be asking for if there
22 were leave for third party proceedings. None of this, as I
23 tried to stress a little earlier, is to encourage you to
24 the view that I will grant such leave, but I am merely
25 mentioning these things in case you have not thought of
26 them yourself.
27
28 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Obviously, we have to get substantial legal
29 advice before we make the applications, although our advice
30 is that we are entitled to make the application.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are certainly entitled to make the
33 application and I will listen to the application if you
34 make it. But all I am saying is that there are not just
35 two sets of parties to the application. There are three
36 sets, and the third being the potential third parties
37 themselves. If you do make an application, it will not
38 just be a scrap between you and McDonald's, as I
39 anticipate; it will be a scrap between you, McDonald's and
40 the potential third parties as well.
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: The only other thing I would say about that, if I
43 may, at this stage, that if it were proposed, as it were,
44 to introduce a trial of those third party proceedings if
45 the Defendants got leave, I would have a very great deal to
46 say about that at this stage of the trial.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is another matter. You are not only, as
49 I anticipate it, asking for leave to issue third party
50 proceedings but for a direction from me that the third
51 party proceedings be tried with all the usual forms
52 immediately after this action, which means that they are
53 actually tried together. It is a funny form of words which
54 I have never particularly understood.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: They can be tried after. I have done one which
57 was tried after.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. But they are, in effect, tried at the
60 same -- all the evidence is taken at the same time, is it
