Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 03
1 time for any notice of appeal against it has not yet begun
2 to run.
3
4 I am concerned about that, because part of the reasoning
5 for deciding the issue which I did decide on 20th November
6 last year was that any party aggrieved by my ruling might
7 have time to appeal the ruling before the close of the
8 evidence in this trial.
9
10 Accordingly, what I propose to do, subject to any comment
11 from any party, is to direct that the court associate
12 forthwith draw up and seal an order consequent upon the
13 ruling which I gave on 20th November 1995, so that the
14 period of 28 days for any appeal will begin to run.
15
16 Two matters I would add to that. The first is for the
17 benefit of Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris, that if they wish to
18 appeal urgently or to apply for leave to appeal urgently to
19 the Court of Appeal from any order of mine made in the
20 course of the case -- and I am really looking to the future
21 now -- they can do so pro forma without the need for an
22 order to be drawn and sealed. Perhaps you are aware of
23 that already.
24
25 The second matter is this: if at any stage in the future
26 I am called upon to give rulings which are not just a
27 ruling as to whether parts of the evidence of a witness are
28 admissible or not, but are more fundamental, I would invite
29 the parties to ask me to consider what should be done about
30 the drawing up and sealing of any order, so that time does
31 begin to run if any appeal is contemplated, whether by
32 either of the Plaintiffs or either of the Defendants in the
33 case.
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: That is very helpful. I have been, as
36 your Lordship will have been when at the Bar, involved in
37 many cases in which rulings made in the course of the trial
38 are taken to the Court of Appeal, and it is only done on
39 the basis that it is necessary and will help the future
40 conduct of the trial.
41
42 The practice, certainly at the Bar, so far as I have been
43 concerned, is not to worry about drawing up orders or
44 sealing them; simply to treat the ruling, once it has been
45 corrected by a judge and handed down, as the date at which
46 the time for appeal starts.
47
48 I am bound to say that because these things happen during
49 the course of the trial, people are normally pretty good
50 about going to the Court of Appeal as soon as the Court of
51 Appeal will hear them; and I would encourage the defendants
52 not to sit on their rights under the rules and wait for
53 28 days to go by, because by then it may well be it is too
54 late because the evidence will have been given -- in many
55 cases. I am not taking this case as an example, but,
56 plainly, in relation to nutrition, it is a matter of really
57 considerable urgency, if there is to be an appeal, that it
58 should be dealt with now rather than in four weeks' time.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is why I have said what I have. You
