Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 03
1 she is going to be recalled, obviously, she is in a state
2 of limbo so far as she is concerned, and she must not talk
3 to anybody about the evidence. She does not know how long
4 that is going to continue for. I think that if that is the
5 case, then the Plaintiffs should have a deadline of
6 something like 14 days or something where they should
7 decide if they are going to recall otherwise it is unfair
8 on the witness.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I can see some possible merit in that.
11 I would not have thought there was any reason at the
12 moment, unless Mr. Rampton is prepared to say so, I would
13 not impose a limitation of necessarily 14 days. Your point
14 is that their decision should be made sooner rather than
15 later?
16
17 MR. MORRIS: Mainly for her benefit.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I can see some merit in that purely and
20 simply from the point of view that a person likes to know
21 where they stand. How long will it take, Mr. Rampton?
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I just do not know. Of course, as your
24 Lordship understands, it is not entirely in my hands.
25 I have very, very little sympathy with the Defendants given
26 that they are ------
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not concerned with the Defendants. I am
29 concerned with the witness who is a perfectly ordinary
30 citizen and ought to know sooner rather than later whether
31 she has to come back or not.
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: But with Easter approaching, it would simply be
34 unrealistic to expect that I would be in a position to make
35 a decision within anything like as short as 14 days. Other
36 people have to make their own decisions about the matter
37 which does not lie within my power. I have to wait to see
38 what they say both in principle and in detail. I quite
39 honestly do not know that I would be in a position to do
40 that within less than about 28 days anyway.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. I can see no good reason for a decision
43 not being made within six weeks.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: That is helpful, my Lord, yes.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I think is you should be able to say
48 within four weeks of now whether you really need the whole
49 of the six weeks or not.
50
51 MR. RAMPTON: Obviously, I will make a decision as soon as
52 I can. Apart from anything else, we need to fit her in
53 somewhere.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know, but that is another matter. The
56 question is when can she be told one way or the other.
57 I have to say my attitude is this, that her original
58 statement gave notice of certain matters of fact pertaining
59 to Jarretts at the end of the day and, for whatever reason,
60 no-one actually from Jarretts was called, an outsider was
