Day 175 - 18 Oct 95 - Page 18
1 the truth to come out, because justice is not an absolute
2 concept; it involves all sorts of things like getting
3 litigation over reasonably promptly and one party or the
4 other not being put to unnecessary expense, and things like
5 that.
6
7 MR. MORRIS: I mean -----
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I want to do is hear what Mr. Rampton has
10 to say.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: Can I just say, if it helps, we can ask the witness
13 not to name names, so there is no specific allegation
14 against individuals that they would feel -----
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, that is rather artificial. Let me hear
17 what Mr. Rampton has to say, because there are various
18 possible solutions in my mind. I want to hear what
19 Mr. Rampton has to say first.
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: I would be very pleased to have the detail which
22 is wholly absent from Mr. Whittle's statement, if I could
23 use it -- as I have not been able to do -- to find somebody
24 who was at Sutton during the three years 1983 to 1986. It
25 so happens -- I will be quite candid about it -- there are
26 no records of Sutton in those years, no written records,
27 except for some papers relating to planning applications,
28 but no relevant material in it at all, alas. The
29 consequence of that has been, given the complete lack of
30 any chapter and verse of Mr. Whittle's statement, a series
31 of broad generalities, we have not been able to find
32 somebody to deal with them. Now, if I had the detail --
33 and I would be delighted to have it -- then I could call a
34 witness. The trouble is, with the way the case is run, I
35 am supposed to call my witnesses first, and I could not do
36 it in this case. What I am not willing to consent to is to
37 have this gentleman give a whole lot of detail which I am
38 not in a position to contradict because I have not taken
39 instructions and I have not got a witness. That is all.
40 It is as simple as that.
41
42 If I may say so, I adopt wholeheartedly everything that
43 your Lordship has said. I add only this, that I have very
44 little sympathy with Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris' complaint
45 that they are unable to deal with this problem. It arose
46 in the case of Mr. Logan, certainly in the context of
47 discovery, and, lo and behold, within a very short time, we
48 had a list names and even some dates which helped us to
49 deal with the problem.
50
51 I do not understand why, during August and September when
52 the court was not sitting, Mr. Morris or Ms. Steel could
53 not have written a very short letter to Mr. Whittle saying,
54 "Please give us some detail of these general allegations
55 which you are making so that we can send them to the
56 Plaintiffs, as we must do."
57
58 My Lord, I just give your Lordship the reference for
59 your Lordship's ruling.
60
