Day 144 - 28 Jun 95 - Page 74

     
     1        whether Mia Hovi can be released; there is outstanding
     2        discovery of several documents referred to by the
     3        Plaintiffs' witnesses; we wanted to go back into Civil
     4        Evidence Act notices on quotes from the Plaintiffs'
     5        employees, depending on what level they are at and
     6        generally that area; there are things about opinion which
     7        kind of came up during a number of discussions -- one about
     8        whether it was reasonable to compare executives' pay with
     9        crew pay and also about whether it was reasonable
    10        for -- sorry, I am really tired -- to say that there was
    11        something about, I cannot think, torture and murder during
    12        the argument about animals; there is about Jill Barnes
    13        coming back for cross-examination and related matters to
    14        that about the health and safety minutes; I think you asked
    15        for a video list which, obviously, that probably does not
    16        need to be discussed.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is not a matter of urgency, I would not
    19        have thought.  What I would like you to do -----
    20
    MR. MORRIS:  There is a very important issue which is we are
    22        still getting legal advice -- if we can track down someone
    23        to advise us on it -- we are considering an application to
    24        strike out any further evidence or a no case to answer on
    25        the matter of links between diet and ill-health because of
    26        the admissions made by the Plaintiffs, in particular, in
    27        their own documents.
    28
    29        We are getting legal advice on that which, of course, if
    30        that was successful, would save time and effort in
    31        recalling witnesses and arguing the point in the future.
    32
    33        So that is something we cannot actually put on the list
    34        until we have the legal advice we need; we are hopefully
    35        going to get that this week.  That would be the subject of
    36        a skeleton argument.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I do not want to encourage you on
    39        that.  Once I have heard quite a lot of evidence on a
    40        subject, I am going to be extremely disinclined to say:
          "I am going to find here and now before the end of the
    42        case in favour of one side or the other on that".  By all
    43        means, take your legal advice and take whatever course you
    44        think is appropriate in the light of it.
    45
    46   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I have been reading on the screen all
    47        those things that Ms. Steel read out.  I am not the least
    48        bit content with a vocal list of that kind, particularly am
    49        I discontented by a simple reference to "seven documents
    50        referred to by the Plaintiffs' witnesses". 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:  Several. 
    53
    54   MR. RAMPTON:  Then that is a mistranscription on the screen.
    55        "Several" is even worse.  I did say the other day (and
    56        I meant it) that I really do need to know what the
    57        documents are and what their provenance is said to be and
    58        their relevance.  I cannot really argue on the basis of a
    59        blank and, what one might call, opaque reference of that
    60        kind.