Day 097 - 06 Mar 95 - Page 06
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So there we are. Let us see where we go.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, with that in mind, I have no idea what
4 your Lordship might be thinking of doing. I obviously have
5 a duty to attend, not only to the expeditious hearing of
6 the case so far as possible, but also to the alignment and
7 scheduling of my witnesses.
8
9 I have now a solid bank of witnesses starting at 2 o'clock
10 today which takes us through until the end of next week,
11 the 17th. Thereafter, it is easy to see that the matter
12 becomes a good deal more fluid. The only fixture, if I can
13 call it that, I have presently got is Mr. Beavers on 10th
14 April for the three days before Easter. So far as the
15 Defendants' witnesses -----
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is position with regards to
18 Mr. Beavers?
19
20 MR. RAMPTON: He has been notified and has arranged that he
21 should come back at that time.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have steadfastly refused to give any kind
24 of indication as to whether there is any possibility of not
25 sitting that week, but it was a period of three days,
26 I think, which appeared on Mr. Morris' letter of request
27 for his own personal reasons, was it not?
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, it was. The reason I have only given him
30 three days is partly because he has covered quite a lot of
31 ground already, but principally because when he was last
32 here Mr. Morris said there were three things only that he
33 wanted to continue to cross-examine him, or the Defendants,
34 one of which has been dealt with. The one which has been
35 dealt with was the US accident statistics. Whether any
36 cross-examination arises out of those statistics, I do not
37 know; it might be fairly shortly, I would have thought, it
38 might be. The other two, one was environment/index.html">litter -----
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Sorry?
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: Litter, my Lord, in the United States with which
43 to some extent, at least, Mr. Beavers has already dealt.
44 The third was what Mr. Morris calls the whole subject of
45 publication, by which I think he meant the Corporation's
46 reasons for bringing this action. There has been some
47 evidence about that already. I remember your Lordship
48 saying at the time, rather to my consternation, that your
49 Lordship was not necessarily very interested in that.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The reason I said that was that if a party
52 chooses to bring an action, there we are; I will just get
53 on and try it.
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, My Lord, it may have been my fault -- one
56 gets a cast of mind over a long bit of time if one
57 specialises in any branch of the law. Of course, in the
58 ordinary case where the Plaintiff is a human being and
59 there is an issue of damages, the reasons for bringing
60 action tend to be rather central to that issue. But, of
