Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 03
1 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me just speak to the Defendants, then.
4
5 MS. STEEL: I disagree with what Mr. Rampton said, that there
6 was nothing more to be found in those documents that added
7 to the sum total of knowledge to what was in Mr. Walker's
8 statement. There is more information in them, and we were
9 trying to cross-examine Mr. Oakley on that. We feel that
10 this was just a tactical manoeuvre by the Plaintiffs and,
11 as such, was an abuse of process.
12
13 We are actually concerned about quite a lot of the
14 Plaintiffs' interruptions during our cross-examination.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can we deal with this, first of all? The
17 fact is that, in the situation which has arisen with regard
18 to these documents, since they have come into your
19 possession, whether or not they were actually privileged,
20 it was for the Plaintiffs to make an application, if they
21 so chose, to seek an order from me restraining you from
22 using them in the trial and ordering you to return them if,
23 having heard full argument, I thought fit to do so. Since
24 they have not taken that step, there is no issue but that
25 you are entitled to put them to any valid use in the course
26 of the trial.
27
28 MS. STEEL: With respect, they served these documents,
29 I believe, at the end of April or the beginning of May.
30 They did not write to us for another month to ask us to
31 give them back. I brought this up in my opening speech,
32 and they still did not apply. We do feel that this was
33 tactical manoeuvre to prevent our cross-examination of a
34 witness. We do feel quite perturbed at the course of their
35 actions.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment and think where are you
38 going. All I was trying to explain is that that has now
39 gone. If Mr. Rampton had made his application, I do not
40 know what my decision would have been, but it has gone as a
41 prospect of any restriction on your use of the documents in
42 the case. That is the first step.
43
44 What you have gone on to say, I am not going to comment on
45 at this stage. If you are making an application of some
46 kind with regard to it, I will obviously consider that
47 application and I will make whatever rule I think right and
48 just to do, but I am not going to comment one way or
49 another on what I might or might not think about what has
50 happened.
51
52 MS. STEEL: We will get legal advice on the position about the
53 manoeuvring.
54
55 Before we go on to anything else, I found a copy of the
56 original headed notepaper from the US DA letter.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Just pause a moment. What do you want
59 to do about that?
60
