Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 06
1 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, one problem is this -- and it is nobody's
2 fault -- as I say, I have an idea what it was that
3 Dr. Gomez Gonzalez was referring, at any rate in some
4 respects. I am not quite sure that there was not a
5 misunderstanding anyway between him and the Defendants.
6 His English, though very good, is not perfect. I cannot
7 intervene in cross-examination to ask him in detail what he
8 is talking about. I cannot speak to him at the moment
9 about that, because he has not finished his evidence. All
10 we can do, so far as that is concerned, is wait until he
11 comes back to cross-examined further and re-examined.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would ask you to reconsider that, because
14 it may be that you will not get to any final position until
15 that has happened, but there will be information on the
16 transcript of his evidence. If an enquiry is made about
17 that, there may be an immediate -----
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: There may be, but the problem is that there may
20 not be. The only sensible way of resolving that
21 difficulty, if it be a difficulty, is for Mr. Cesca to say
22 to Dr. Gomez Gonzalez: "Look, what are these things that
23 you are talking about?" It may be that he does not have
24 to, because he may say: "Yes, of course, I know what he is
25 talking about." But the only sensible way of dealing with
26 that before the re-examination is finished is for Mr. Cesca
27 and Dr. Gomez Gonzalez to discuss it and see if, in fact,
28 there is any difference between them.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I am reluctant for that to happen,
31 because of ---
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: I am not encouraging it.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- the difficulty arose only a few days ago.
36
37 MR. RAMPTON: I quite agree. I am not encouraging it at all.
38 I am only trying to illustrate the difficulty of the
39 problem, if there is a problem. My suspicion is that there
40 probably is not, in fact.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That may be, but we just do not know. It may
43 be that with regard to some documents Dr. Gomez Gonzalez
44 was talking through his hat; it may be he has
45 misrecollected about others; it may be that others he was
46 referring to are ones which have all been disclosed. On
47 the other hand, it may well be that he has seen something
48 which just has not come to light in the course of the
49 litigation.
50
51 If what you are saying is that you do not feel able to
52 advise your instructing solicitors to initiate further
53 enquiries usefully until Dr. Gomez Gonzalez has completed
54 his evidence, or you think that we will not get to the
55 bottom of it until he has completed his evidence, I have to
56 say that is a very strong argument for recalling him just
57 as soon as is possible.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: I am not saying the first, because I think that
60 Mr. Cesca can legitimately read everything that
