Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 07
1 I think that is basically it.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Mr. Rampton, is there anything you want
4 to say?
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I heartily endorse. I was going to make
7 various submissions which, as it were, were anticipated by
8 your Lordship. I have nothing to say. I have this to say
9 in addition, that even if the majority, perhaps 90 per cent
10 of this statement, were not objectionable for the reasons
11 that your Lordship has given, it is objectionable for two
12 other reasons: The first is that Mr. Secrett has arrogated
13 himself a definition of the issues in this case, which he
14 has got wrong, and he has also arrogated to himself a
15 decision about where the burden of proof lies in this case,
16 which he has also got wrong, and for those two additional
17 reasons, this whole statement is objectionable, but
18 certainly in the respects that your Lordship has indicated.
19
20 I say this: It is, to my mind, completely irrelevant what
21 McDonald's might have said to him or anybody else back in
22 whenever it was, to the resolution of the issues in this
23 case. It may well be a matter for an argument in another
24 forum chosen by Mr. Secrett but he does not choose his
25 forum. I do not believe it to be appropriate that he
26 should use that witness box as a platform for what appears
27 to be some kind of private vendetta against McDonald's.
28
29 MS. STEEL: I do not know if any note is going to be taken of
30 the additional points Mr. Rampton has raised?
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will bear those in mind in the future when
33 I have to do a large exercise in sorting the wheat from the
34 chaff anyway and I will hear anything you wish to say in
35 relation to that, but you need not deal with those in
36 answer today.
37
38 MS. STEEL: I just say that Mr. Rampton has recently kept making
39 speeches criticising our evidence and we are not getting an
40 opportunity to come back and I think that it would be
41 better if Mr. Rampton kept those until his closing speeches
42 at the end.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You can answer if you want but I am telling
45 you it is not necessary to do so because I will be in a
46 better position to sort the wheat from the chaff when
47 I have heard the evidence, save in the respects where it is
48 seems to me obvious that evidence is not admissible, and it
49 is only when it seemed to be obvious that it cannot
50 possibly be admissible by any kind of argument that I have
51 excluded it.
52
53 Is there anything more you want to say in addition to what
54 you said before?
55
56 MS. STEEL: No. The only point I make now in answer to what
57 Mr. Rampton has just said is that, as far as we can see,
58 Mr. Secrett has concentrated on the issues in the case. It
59 may not be the issues as Mr. Rampton sees them but it has
60 already been quite apparent that there is disagreement
