Day 170 - 05 Oct 95 - Page 03

     
     1        Defendants to get proper details and make a properly
     2        particularised allegation which then I can see whether
     3        I can deal with or not; at the moment I simply cannot.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let us take it stage by stage.  Obviously,
     6        Mr. Morris or Ms. Steel can ask Mrs. Norris about
     7        interpretation of "hustle" while she, Mrs. Norris was
     8        managing the store.  So far as any other matters are
     9        concerned, what I suggest is that Mr. Morris puts to
    10        Mrs. Norris the essentials of any previous accident in
    11        relation to which he thinks he may lead evidence in due
    12        course.  But what I do not want is Mrs. Norris saying,
    13        well, she had heard that because that is inadmissible.
    14
    15        I have been fairly relaxed about that in the past, as much
    16        with American witnesses as anything else, because it might
    17        have helped the Defendants or, indeed, both parties to
    18        follow up further chains of enquiries, but I think when we
    19        have got specific witnesses from a specific source, I am
    20        not prepared to be as lax about it.  So, if the situation
         is that Mrs. Norris says she has no direct personal
    22        knowledge herself in relation to any matter, there it must
    23        end and we will see what comes in the future.
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  I am grateful.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you find something so that you want to
    28        call evidence, or if Mr. Morris or Ms. Steel call
    29        admissible evidence into some other incident and you want
    30        to call evidence in rebuttal, then I will deal with all
    31        those matters as they arise.
    32
    33   MR. RAMPTON:  I respectfully, of course, accept and, if I may
    34        say so, agree with what your Lordship has said, at this
    35        stage though, given that, as I say, if I am not mistaken,
    36        Miss O'Riordon is in court today, it would be highly
    37        beneficial to the further conduct of this case that the
    38        Defendants should get from her and deliver to us without
    39        delay any further details that are known about these
    40        accidents so that we can look at them, because at the
         moment I say they are almost so vague as to be -----
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  For all I know, I do not know at the moment
    44        whether Miss O'Riordon can give admissible evidence about
    45        them or not, but that is why I am disinclined to make any
    46        unnecessary decisions at this stage.
    47
    48        What do you want to say about this, Mr. Morris or
    49        Ms. Steel?
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  We have no objection to that course of events 
    52        because if Mrs. Norris did not have any direct knowledge, 
    53        then obviously that .....
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I am suggesting is, you can either
    56        accept what you have just heard from Mr. Rampton for the
    57        time being that Mrs. Norris does not have any direct
    58        knowledge and, therefore, not put it to her at all --
    59        "hustle", I suggest you do, but that is in a different
    60        category -- but any other instance, in the light of what