Day 040 - 21 Oct 94 - Page 03
1 been a wrong judgment insofar as Professor Crawford is
2 concerned, I am satisfied now that it probably was.
3 Otherwise, in relation to other witnesses, there was not a
4 great deal of value in going through all the same
5 materials, for example, Mr. Cannon, which your Lordship has
6 already got, as it were, on the transcript. So far as this
7 witness is concerned it is not, unless your Lordship tells
8 me that I am wrong about it, my intention to go through a
9 large number of papers. As your Lordship will gather from
10 the beginning of my cross-examination yesterday, my
11 approach to this witness is rather different.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I had not at the moment seen it as a
14 problem with Dr. Millstone nor with Dr. Barnard because you
15 put quite a lot to him, nor with Mr. Cannon because I am
16 not in any way seeking to indicate that I may not attach
17 considerable weight to Mr. Cannon -- I will look at that --
18 but I do not see it in quite the same light as putting a
19 scientific paper to a scientific witness in that field.
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, if I may respectfully agree with that.
22 It seems to me that Dr. Millstone and Mr. Cannon are,
23 broadly speaking, in similar positions, namely, they are
24 not scientists in a particular field. What they have done
25 is to sit down and review, as one might (if one had the
26 time and a bit more expertise) oneself, what the
27 scientists, the experts in the field, have actually said.
28
29 To that extent all that I need do, so far as Mr. Cannon and
30 to an extent Dr. Millstone is concerned, is to refer your
31 Lordship in due course to this, that or the other, the more
32 general position, so your Lordship can decide whether the
33 evidence of these gentlemen is valuable or not. That is as
34 far as I anticipate I need to go with these witnesses.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is my view at the moment. I think it is
37 not a matter of calling Professor Crawford now, because it
38 seems to me it would be better for everyone if he is
39 recalled, if that is the decision which is made, after we
40 have had, as it were, the interlocutory hearing on
41 amendment of the Statement of Claim, because, quite apart
42 from anything else, that might air other matters such as
43 the admission of an association related to heart disease
44 because that admission was of a pleading of the Defendants
45 which was a pleading to the Statement of Claim as it
46 presently stands.
47
48 If there were an amendment, then the pleading which they
49 have put to the original Statement of Claim might or might
50 not remain. They might have some variation on it. We have
51 already had evidence called which goes beyond an
52 association other than cause and association, if there can
53 be one, and I hope during the argument it may become
54 clearer to me what the Defendants were promoting as an
55 association in their pleading, and what you thought you
56 were admitting when you thought you were admitting an
57 association. But I will say no more about that. I only
58 raise them because they illustrate that there may be some
59 argument about this which will enable Ms. Steel and
60 Mr. Morris to decide whether they want to ask Professor
