Day 159 - 20 Jul 95 - Page 08
1 I think it could only be fair to say that we have a
2 reasonable belief there will be evidence during the case to
3 that effect, to the effect that the Mato Grosso area does
4 contain areas of rain forest.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. If you are actually going to call a
7 witness, that witness's evidence in the disclosed statement
8 really must contain the essence of the evidence they are
9 going to give. It really is no use saying to me now:
10 "Well, it does not appear in the witness's statement, but
11 they will probably be able to say something on that topic
12 too".
13
14 MS. STEEL: The point is we have a reasonable belief. When
15 pleadings are put on the record there is usually no
16 statement served at that time. It cannot be that we have
17 to have a statement at the time that we plead -----
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I cannot say that you have reasonable grounds
20 for supposing that sufficient evidence to prove the
21 allegations will be available at the trial from a witness
22 of your own, when the disclosed statement of that witness
23 does not say anything about it.
24
25 MS. STEEL: Because this was not a particular area that we were
26 expecting to go into such detail about.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am sorry, I just cannot accept that;
29 otherwise there would be absolutely no point in having
30 disclosed statements. You just send Barlows a statement
31 from Mr. Secret saying who he was and saying, "I can give
32 lots of useful evidence about the rain forest".
33
34 MS. STEEL: The point is this is a specific area that has really
35 only suddenly become a dispute over the last day or two and
36 we could get a statement, if necessary.
37
38 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord, that is -----
39
40 MS. STEEL: We are quite happy to do that.
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: That is absolutely not right, if I may say so.
43 This proposed amendment was served on us, I think, some
44 time about March of this year. We have been waiting and
45 waiting and waiting for Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel to mount
46 their application. Since then, absolutely nothing has
47 happened. Mr. Secret's statement, which, I think, also was
48 made in March, said not a word about this. It is dated
49 20th March.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: In any event, our concern is with the whole of the
52 Amazon Basin. Yesterday you invited us to suggest a
53 possible amendment to our amendment, that if there was a
54 sticking point on that.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: The suggestion would be to remove the words on the
59 sixth line down at the end after Mato Grosso and Goias
60 regions including and/or bordering, to get rid of the
