Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 05
1 be that Mr. Bone may admit under cross-examination that he
2 is wrong, and then we will not need to call Ms. Hovi back;
3 and she has been kept waiting for quite a while.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If we follow that course, I must advise you
6 that you must really find out from Ms. Hovi what she does
7 challenge in his statement, because although everyone has
8 been understanding about you not putting things in
9 cross-examination because you may not have information from
10 your witness -- and I thought it is only fair that there
11 should be understanding about this -- once we have got
12 ourselves in the situation we are in, if they are both
13 going to give evidence, it is really going to be very
14 difficult if Ms. Hovi has something positive to say about
15 something which Mr. Bone says in the witness box, but it is
16 not put to him in cross can examination, so that when she
17 comes back into the witness box (if she does come back into
18 the witness box), she then adds something new again, and
19 I find Mr. Rampton saying: "Well, no criticism of the
20 Defendants but, in fact, that was not put, and Mr. Bone has
21 an answer to that."
22
23 So, all I am saying is, if that is the order which is
24 followed, rather than Ms. Hovi going into the witness box
25 and Mr. Rampton cross-examining her, in the course of his
26 cross-examination I would expect him, as a member of the
27 Bar, to put that which has to be put.
28
29 I think what you have to do, apart from anything else, if
30 that is what happens, we have to do our very best to
31 engineer that they give their evidence back-to-back and
32 that Ms. Hovi is here while Mr. Bone gives his evidence; or
33 at least you have lines of communication that you, first of
34 all, ask her about the things which are in Mr. Bone's
35 statement, so you know what is actually disputed and what
36 is not, rather than just disputing everything on the basis
37 that it is in issue, and that you have a line of
38 communication with Ms. Hovi -- preferably, because she is
39 in court with you -- so that you can ask her what you say
40 about this or that.
41
42 All that is free advice for matters which you really have
43 to think about if I decide, on reflection, that it is only
44 right that they should both give evidence.
45
46 MS. STEEL: If they are both coming back, then obviously we
47 would in any event want to get detailed comment from her
48 about what Mr. Bone says; and obviously, hopefully, we
49 should be able to do that during the summer break.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
52
53 MS. STEEL: We should have more time. We do not have really
54 anything else to say about that particular issue.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you very much.
57
58 MS. STEEL: This is just something I wanted to raise very
59 briefly. We had a letter from the Plaintiffs yesterday,
60 saying that they are going to stop giving us copies of the
