Day 250 - 15 May 96 - Page 16

     
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     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is not a dig at the stenographer, but she
     3        would do very well indeed if she got the note down word
     4        perfect, and I have it word perfect in the White Book.
     5
     6   MS. STEEL:   OK.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is on page 445, the first paragraph.  Read
     9        it, do not say anything and then just listen to me.
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    11   MS. STEEL:   Right.  (Pause).
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you want to say about it?  What I want
    14        to say to you is this:  at the moment it seems to me that
    15        Mr. Nicholson was going, on approximately monthly
    16        occasions, to Barlows' offices to meet a director of one or
    17        other of the firms of private investigators and to meet the
    18        Company's solicitor, namely Mrs. Brinley-Codd, that those
    19        meetings were clearly in anticipation of these, as it
    20        happened, legal proceedings, and that any communication
         between the director and Mr. Nicholson in the solicitor's
    22        office, again, was clearly an information finding exercise
    23        with a view to obtaining the solicitor's advice on the
    24        anticipated legal proceedings.
    25
    26        On the particular occasion you are asking about, Mr.
    27        Nicholson's evidence is that Mr. Clare was invited to go
    28        there by Mrs. Brinley-Codd, the Second Plaintiff's
    29        solicitor, and, for that matter, the First Plaintiff's
    30        solicitor in this country, and all the pointers at the
    31        moment are that that too, just as with the directors of the
    32        firms of private investigators, was with a view to
    33        obtaining information so that the solicitors could give
    34        advice to the Second Plaintiff through Mr. Nicholson as to
    35        anticipated proceedings.  It does not seem to me to matter
    36        whether the information is obtained by the solicitor,
    37        Mrs. Brinley-Codd, from Mr. Clare or obtained by Mr.
    38        Nicholson from Mr. Clare.
    39
    40        As I tried to explain yesterday, there are in fact very
         good reasons of public policy why these rules of privilege
    42        prevail.  But whether you think that is so or not, they are
    43        rules of law.  So you, in any event, it seems to me, have
    44        got to the end of the line because you have asked as much
    45        as you can, but ----
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:  There were other things I wanted to ask.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But anything which directly or indirectly is
    50        calculated to elicit information about what passed between 
    51        Mr. Nicholson and Mr. Clare on this occasion seems to me to 
    52        breach the privilege rule. 
    53
    54   MS. STEEL:   Firstly, I would just like to draw your attention
    55        to paragraph 6 of Mr. Nicholson's supplementary statement.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:   The very last sentence...
    60