Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 04
1 we served these documents on the Defendants at the
2 beginning of November last year.
3
4 Mr. Morris was then going to go down to Bath later that
5 week to see Mr. Logan, when we had two days out of court --
6 the Thursday and the Friday, I think it might have been, or
7 the Wednesday and the Thursday -- and if there are to be
8 matters raised by Mr. Logan on the documents without any
9 notice to us, I am afraid to say I shall have to object to
10 that because it does seem to me to be quite intolerable,
11 considering it was the beginning of November, considering
12 also that since then there has been very nearly a month, as
13 it were, break from court.
14
15 MR. MORRIS: Do I need to come back on that?
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I want to wait and see where we got to.
18 I will say no more at this stage.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: I did bring this up three or four times at the
21 beginning of this week, just to say that that was my
22 intention and there was no objection.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: For that reason, we could cut short the reference
27 to documents with the other witnesses.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, maybe we can; maybe we have been able
30 to. I want to see what happens. The one thing I want to
31 avoid is just using -- it may not be what you have in mind
32 -- Mr. Logan as a cipher to draw my attention to documents
33 which speak for themselves, if you see what I mean? If
34 Mr. Logan has a particular knowledge of something happening
35 because it happened while he was there, and he can refer to
36 a document which you would argue or you could refer him to
37 a document which you would argue in due course offers some
38 support for what he is saying, well and good. But what
39 I do not want you to do is to take time to use Mr. Logan,
40 as it were, as an advocate just to point to how people are
41 actually scheduled when you can do a little note of that
42 which can be put before me in due course and I can look at
43 the documents myself. Do you understand the distinction?
44
45 MR. MORRIS: I do, yes.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Logan is a witness as to fact and that is
48 his sole position in this case.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Yes, but, I mean, he can help the court about, you
51 know, these documents have been disclosed as an educational
52 aid to the court to see how a store runs and monitors
53 itself, whatever. So I would hope that it would be helpful
54 to the court if he can -----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As I said a few moments ago, let us see how
57 we go. But I do not want him just to be an extension of
58 what you want to say.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: No.