Day 050 - 10 Nov 94 - Page 41

     
     1        evidence.  But she does not feel that she would be able to
     2        give evidence until she gets back, which will be -- she
     3        arrives back the following Wednesday -- on the Thursday and
     4        the Friday of the following week, which is two weeks from
     5        today.  Although she has lost her diary, she does not know
     6        what appointments she has made, but she is prepared to give
     7        precedence to today as soon as she does get back.  I think
     8        that is the position.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  What would you like to do and then
    11        I will see what Mr. Rampton has to say, if anything?
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:  What we would like to do is to have the legal
    14        argument on Monday week, which may go over to Tuesday in
    15        any event -- we want to clear up other outstanding matters
    16         -- then call Miss Dibb on the Thursday and Friday and then
    17        go on to packaging the following week.  I have not my
    18        timetable, but that is from my memory.  Mr. Rampton keeps
    19        muttering that it is an attempt to bide time; it is
    20        certainly not.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will hear him in a moment.  You tell me
    23        what you want to say first.
    24
    25   MR. MORRIS:  Just to say that if anybody should even think it is
    26        an attempt to bide time, we would point out that we called
    27        Miss Gallatley before the Plaintiffs' witness had
    28        finished.  We did everything we could to basically clear up
    29        this part of the case by the end of this week.  It is only
    30        because of circumstances beyond our control that it has not
    31        happened.
    32
    33        So, I mean, the people who most stand to benefit from
    34        finishing this subject off would be ourselves, because we
    35        are the people who are finding it most difficult to
    36        administrate all the paper work on each issue, especially
    37        when it is running concurrent with other issues.  So, that
    38        is what we would like to do.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  What about Mr. Bateman?
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, Mr. Bateman, because it is an issue that has
    43        been at issue in the case, but our witness has indicated
    44        that they did not want to give evidence, our witness, and
    45        we want to seek out another witness on the same issue, on
    46        the same subject.  So, really, it is in the Plaintiffs'
    47        hands if they wish to call Mr. Bateman, or when they wish
    48        to call Mr. Bateman.  But we still consider it an issue in
    49        the case which, due to technical reasons, we need to seek
    50        out another witness. 
    51 
    52        Initially, our impression was that Mr. Hopkins would be 
    53        able to deal with it, but that is not his area of
    54        expertise.  So, he was not a strict replacement for Miss
    55        Carroll as we initially thought he was just dealing with
    56        one of the strands.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  How long do you need to seek another witness
    59        because, if you are going to do that, I think you should
    60        obtain a statement from the witness and serve it within a