Day 009 - 08 Jul 94 - Page 04

     
     1        not positively himself want to recall one of his experts,
              suppose you thought there was a point there that it was as
     2        broad as it was long, and you said to me:  "We would like
              that witness recalled so I can put a matter to him", or:
     3         "We can canvass this matter", then it might very well be
              that I would encourage Mr. Rampton to recall him.  But
     4        what we would be doing is deciding all these things on the
              merits of the matter when we have actually heard their
     5        evidence-in-chief, possibly some cross-examination by you
              and your witnesses; we would have a much clearer picture.
     6
              What troubles me is, suppose I gave you a whole week or a
     7        week and a half, you are going to have virtually a week
              anyway, looking at the schedule as it is in front of me.
     8        I have a pretty shrewd suspicion that some things would
              come out of your nutrition experts' evidence which you
     9        have not canvassed with McDonald's nutrition witnesses.
              Although Mr. Rampton has said he is not going to criticise
    10        you for not putting anything -- if he did, obviously
              I would not think much of the criticism because you are
         representing yourselves anyway -- the situation would
              really in common sense require recall.
    12
              I am concerned that if I thought that you ought to have
    13        six days rather than two or three days plus a weekend,
              which is not so very far short of the same, we would still
    14        have loose ends which would have to be tied up.  In this
              way we can get to those witnesses and get through them to
    15        a large extent.
 
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, it is five days entirely including a
              weekend, possibly some part of Monday and Tuesday, making
    17        possibly a total of nearly six days.
 
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  My own feeling is because the issues are not
              easy, they may or may not at the end of the day be easy to
    19        decide, but all the aspects are not immediately easy to
              understand.  However much time you have, there will be
    20        significant loose ends which we will have to come back
              to.  If I have judged the matter rightly in expressing
         that view, I think we may as well get on.  You have after
              all a number of days to do some considerable preparation
    22        and pick up the loose ends anyway.
 
    23        Quite candidly, it seems to me a good idea.
 
    24   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  We appreciate that position.  It is
              certainly an improvement from what it was before.
    25
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Could I just mention one other thing?  The 
    26        very least you will have, by the end of July when we break 
              off for six weeks, is a transcript of the 
    27        evidence-in-chief of the plaintiffs' nutrition experts.
              You may have cross-examined them a little, you may have
    28        cross-examined them a fair bit, I do not know.  One of
              your difficulties, I anticipate, is not being ready to
    29        cross-examine in court or difficulty in cross-examining
              because you are making a pretty fair fist of that so far,
    30        it is getting instructions from your experts on what the
              defendants' case is.  Here you will actually have