Day 097 - 06 Mar 95 - Page 23

     
     1        Lordship did not sit again until 3rd October, which I could
     2        well understand, and would, I respectfully believe, be the
     3        right thing to do, then the Defendants' employment
     4        witnesses if (and I say "if") they are all called would
     5        take, according to the old schedule, another eight weeks or
     6        so, which takes us up to near the end of November.
     7
     8        Then there is rainforest and publication which, on the old
     9        schedule, was something like two weeks, but perhaps that
    10        was optimistic.  Publication was originally estimated to be
    11        three weeks.  So, therefore, if the evidence as presently
    12        projected all ran its course (and I am constantly looking
    13        for ways to try to ensure that it does not) it would mean
    14        one would not finish the evidence until Christmas.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Has that made allowance for the return of
    17        nutrition witnesses?
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  No, sorry, my Lord.  I completely forgot them.
    20        No, it does not.  There is Mr. Fairgrieve to come back.
         There are the two paper making people, Bateman and Link,
    22        and there are some nutrition witnesses, I do not know how
    23        many, definitely Professor Crawford, but beyond that it is
    24        a matter for your Lordship.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That expands it further then until after
    27        Christmas.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  It does, I am afraid, yes.  I suppose, if one is
    30        realistic, I hate having to be realistic in this case, one
    31        has to contemplate the awful possibility that I would not
    32        finish the evidence until the end of January 1996.  I say
    33        this, again without any intention of being tendentious at
    34        all, the more so if one is having to allow time because of
    35        Ms. Steel's health.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There we are.  We will have our five-minute.
    38        I hope everyone in this court appreciates (as I do) that
    39        one has only to talk about the evidence not finishing until
    40        the end of January 1996 to make the point that somehow, and
         preferably by agreement, we have to do something to improve
    42        that situation.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  Can I say that we were going to send a notice to
    45        admit to the Plaintiffs regarding the nutrition matter, to
    46        accept that there is a causal link between diet and cancer,
    47        which has already been accepted by their witness, we
    48        submit, and all the other witnesses.  That would save
    49        time.  We would not need to call any further -----
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I say here and now, that is a complete 
    52        waste of time.  The Defendants should be getting on with 
    53        something else.  There is no way that I am going to admit
    54        that or that, as far as I am concerned, any of my witnesses
    55        have admitted causal link of that kind.
    56
    57   MS. STEEL:  Mr. Wheelock has clearly admitted it.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will have our five-minute break.  What are
    60        we going to do then?  Are we going to come back to the