Day 213 - 31 01 96 - Page 75
DAY 213
1 MR. RAMPTON: The trouble is that it is obviously, from what I
2 am saying, a very serious condition. He has to start his
3 treatment next week. Given the nature of the condition
4 which he has, it is the kind of treatment which very likely
5 will make him feel extremely unwell; and of course the news
6 that he has been given is not going to make him in any
7 condition to want to give evidence. I do not think I can
8 find a substitute, even if there is an adequate substitute,
9 which there may not be, at this sort of notice.
10
11 What I am left with, I think, probably, in the end, is a
12 decision -- I have not made the decision yet, because
13 I have not got enough information -- to put a Civil
14 Evidence Act notice, with your Lordship's leave, under Ord.
15 38 r. 25 on Mr. Bone's existing statement and the plan
16 which he has produced.
17
18 Fortunately, in those circumstances, if that is what we do
19 -- and it is very likely what we will do, if your Lordship
20 gives us leave -- his statement is extremely detailed.
21
22 What it does means is that the overwhelming probability is
23 that I will not have a witness on Wednesday of next week. I
24 mean, I will not have a Jarrett witness.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you proposing to do the Civil Evidence
27 Act notice before Miss Hovey is scheduled?
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: There, my Lord, I am entirely in your Lordship's
30 hands and the hands of the Defendants. If we reach the
31 conclusion -- which, as I say, we certainly will, if that
32 is the right way of proceeding -- and then if your Lordship
33 and the Defendants prefer that the statement is put in -- I
34 am not going to read it out -- whether it is before Miss
35 Hovey is, and if Miss Hovey is free to come on Friday
36 still, and so on, then she can come and simply be
37 cross-examined on the basis of Mr. Bone's statement and the
38 plan.
39
40 If there is any reason why that is not convenient, then I
41 am entirely unflexible about it. It is only a loss of
42 time, but that is something which in the circumstances
43 nobody can be said to be responsible for.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would like to do is -- it is not for a
46 moment that I have any doubt about the instructions which
47 you have been given which have led you to say what you have
48 -- in an area which has proved sensitive in the past, to
49 the point that I had to give a ruling after argument on the
50 matter, I think it might be helpful, if it were possible,
51 to produce what need only be a short report which deals
52 with the diagnosis and what the prognosis for recovery to
53 the point that a medical adviser would -- I will not say
54 any more, because one would have to look at just what the
55 rules says -- do not bother to do it now -- so far as Civil
56 Evidence Act notice grounds are concerned, and produce that
57 at the same time as a Civil Evidence Act notice, and we
58 will take stock of where we are.
59
60 While that is happening, keep Miss Hovey where she is,
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