Day 079 - 27 Jan 95 - Page 11
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not prepared to give a ruling on that
2 ---
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: No, I am not asking your Lordship -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- not having heard proper argument. I might
7 be against you on that at the end of the day in the
8 circumstances of this case.
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: Your Lordship might be, but I say that because
11 I say it in response to Ms. Steel's observation about the
12 waste of time and money. I give fair warning that that is
13 a possible consequence for the Defendants if they do call
14 that witness.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just listen for a moment longer. At the
17 moment I am not against you enquiring further into the
18 circumstances of the Preston outbreak, but you must observe
19 my ruling which is as to the way in which at the moment, if
20 at all, you can use this document.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: I think there are four or five overlapping factors
23 going on. I think that the first most, you know, if you
24 like, the bullet point is the Plaintiffs should be asked to
25 clarify what their admission actually is. If they say they
26 are responsible for an incident; if they then go into the
27 details and recognise the existence of an official report
28 and its conclusion, I think they should be asked what
29 exactly are they admitting, because I think this happened
30 before with their so-called admissions over the health
31 issue which we, obviously, quite strongly felt misled the
32 court and misled the Defence.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am going to stop you there, Mr. Morris.
35 I am not going to stop you arguing this point at what
36 I consider to be the right moment in time. If you want
37 clarification of the admission and how far it goes, we will
38 come to it. But at the moment we have Mr. Walker in the
39 witness box. I have not stopped you asking him questions
40 related to the Preston outbreak. All I have done is made a
41 ruling in relation to the extent to which this document can
42 be used during cross-examination of Mr. Walker.
43
44 You must abide by my rulings. If, at the end of the day,
45 you are dissatisfied with one of my rulings and you think
46 it has adversely affected the decision I eventually make in
47 the case in some respect, then you know what your remedies
48 are. But you must abide by my rulings as I make them.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Can we just ask a simple question of the Plaintiffs
51 then? The document which has been handed up again today,
52 is that the Public Health Laboratory official report which
53 they included in their admission? Is that the same
54 document which they are saying had that conclusion in it?
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, Mr. Morris is asking a question about his
57 own pleading.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: No, i am asking the Plaintiffs what they are
60 admitting.
