Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 43
1 agreed unless you say otherwise. Experience tells me that
2 we find ourselves halfway through speeches and a document
3 will be referred to and you might say: "Oh, well, we did
4 not mean to accept that." No one could criticise you for
5 that, because it would be very easy to miss; and then it
6 would be too late to do anything about it.
7
8 MR. MORRIS: If we can get a list from Mrs. Brinley-Codd, a
9 complete list of computer generated documents, we will try
10 to check them all up.
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I should say that we do not propose to
13 make a list of whatever documents the Defendants might want
14 to rely on, because we have no idea what they might be.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If I were you, what I would do is wait for
17 Mr. Rampton's list and then think of what other ones of the
18 same kind may not be on that list which you would want to
19 rely on.
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: In the absence of which, we shall object to the
22 admissibility of all the documents on the Defendants' side
23 which are not properly verified in any way.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest you do is wait to get the
26 Plaintiffs' list, go through that and see which ones you
27 are prepared to accept as accurate for the purposes of the
28 litigation. All you need to do is put a tick against
29 those, and a cross against those you positively dispute,
30 and leave blank the ones which you might like to discuss
31 further. Then produce your own list of any additional
32 documents. If you are concerned about where we have got
33 to, then raise it again so that we can discuss it further.
34
35 MS. STEEL: The documents about length of time of service of
36 employees; Mr. Rampton said that Mr. Stein must be right,
37 or something. I think that the Plaintiffs should ensure
38 that checks are made to find out whether or not these
39 documents do exist, because it could equally be that
40 Mr. Stein is wrong. He was wrong about some other
41 matters. I do not think it should be the assumption that
42 Mr. Beavers is wrong and Mr. Stein is right. I think there
43 should be a thorough check made for all those documents.
44
45 Data on the number of people leaving versus the number of
46 people that are employed; I am not entirely sure what
47 Mr. Rampton was saying. He seemed to be saying that
48 turnover figures were irrelevant.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I understood Mr. Rampton to be saying is
51 this: the relevance of turnover figures, if relevance there
52 is, is that it can be argued that a high turnover shows
53 dissatisfaction by crew with their terms and conditions of
54 employment. So although there is a statement, a factual
55 statement, about turnover in the leaflet, it is in that
56 respect (if any) that it would relate to a defamatory
57 meaning. Therefore, he says it is not as if it is in the
58 direct forefront of the case. It has that secondary
59 possible importance, and one should take that into account
60 in deciding whether the work involved is necessary for the
