Day 263 - 14 Jun 96 - Page 02
1 Friday, 14th June, 1996
2
3 MS. STEEL: Firstly, I wanted to apologise for being late. We
4 are actually trying to sort out rather a lot of things at
5 once at the moment. This was something we wanted to raise,
6 anyway; we were discussing this yesterday evening. But,
7 because we have been trying to keep to the schedule in
8 order to finish by the 18th, we have ended up with a
9 situation where we are jumping from subject to subject, we
10 are having to read up on lots of different subjects, we are
11 trying to take the new witness statements on different
12 subjects, we are trying to -- I am sure you have heard
13 about the subpoena of Lord Vestey -- we are trying to sort
14 that out.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know anything about that. I heard
17 that there may be some kind of application about that at
18 two o'clock this afternoon.
19
20 MS. STEEL: On top of that, we are also trying to deal with all
21 the matters for the appeal. Effectively, what it is
22 meaning is that we are just rushing around nonstop, and not
23 getting anything done properly, nor done in time or in a,
24 you know, a sort of coherent way.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
27
28 MS. STEEL: We have also got a problem with the appeal which is
29 that, although the bundles have been lodged, they consider
30 there is something wrong with them, so we have to, at some
31 stage before Monday, go up and sort that out; otherwise,
32 the appeal will be listed for dismissal on Wednesday.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: How long do you think the rest of Mr. Laporte
35 is going to take?
36
37 MS. STEEL: Of -----
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Laporte -- Mr. Pocklington, sorry.
40 I made that mistake once before -- Mr. Pocklington.
41
42 MS. STEEL: Well, we have not actually discussed that, but
43 I would not have thought longer than half a day; probably,
44 quite a bit less than that.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is it really that long -- because you have
47 not got many more occasions -----
48
49 MS. STEEL: I said, probably quite a bit less than that.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I have in mind is, if we get on now with
52 the rest of your argument because, really, all you to have
53 address me on is anything you want to say as to whether
54 litigation was reasonably in prospect when the inquiry
55 started or at any stage between then and September 1990,
56 what you say is relevant. You remember what Mr. Rampton
57 said about restricting it to matters to occasions where
58 either you were mentioned or McDonald's were mentioned, or
59 there was something to do with McDonald's -- I would have
60 thought you could be fairly short about that -- and then
