Day 243 - 02 May 96 - Page 31
1 another, but it seems to me it is another thing for any
2 party to be relying on a particular document -- or this is
3 what I most in mind, a computer printout -- thinking that
4 it speaks for itself only to find when it is too late to
5 call any evidence that there is some fundamental objection
6 to it being taken into account.
7
8 MR. RAMPTON: That is certainly right and, whether it is argued
9 or not, we must have any objections that the Defendants
10 have before we all go away because if there are any
11 objections then, for example, a computer printout generated
12 at some time in the past by an unknown person, though I
13 am fairly confident that we could, if put to it, formally
14 prove the documents, all the documents which we have put
15 forward, even if they have not already been proved, in some
16 cases, it will take a considerable amount of time and
17 effort and we would have to set that in motion unless
18 I could persuade your Lordship it did not need doing. It
19 would have to be set in motion sooner rather than later.
20
21 We did originally ask the defendant -- we sent our list to
22 them, I cannot remember when, but in the earlier part of
23 this year and asked them to respond by the 16th April.
24 They have not done so I am not complaining about that save
25 in so far as eventually it may put us in an impossible
26 difficulty.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What would seem to me to be sensible would be
29 to say that on any day where a gap appears after the legal
30 vacation (which ends on 3rd June) I will ask Ms. Steel and
31 Mr. Morris to say which documents are admitted on
32 Mrs. Brinley-Codd's list and to which there is a
33 fundamental objection. Do you remember I suggested you do
34 your best to provide a similar list?
35
36 MS. STEEL: We have not forgotten about that but we have not
37 had the time to do it and that is all.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am saying "after the legal vacation"
40 because that may give you some time, if you have not
41 completed your work on it, to be ready.
42
43 MR. RAMPTON: The only other thing ----
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You should do your best to deal with
46 Mrs. Brindley-Codd's list but you owe it to yourselves to
47 raise any document which you think is important to your
48 case where it is not proved by a witness and you want to
49 make sure that it is either accepted as common ground,
50 agreed or admitted so that you know that you can rely upon
51 it and not find out too late that it is not actually
52 admissible as proof of its contents.
53
54 MS. STEEL: If it is a McDonald's own document, do we still need
55 to do that or can we not say, "Well, if they have admitted
56 something in their own document, we can use it against
57 them"?
58
59 MR. MORRIS: You did say that at one time.
60
