Day 216 - 06 02 96 - Page 24

 
 

                                                                  DAY 216
 
 
 
 
 
     1        had gone -- in summary, the case they seek to make is that
     2        when the Second Plaintiffs published their material
     3        responding to the Defendants' attacks on them, what the
     4        Plaintiffs said was known to the Plaintiffs to be false, in
     5        effect.
     6
     7        The obvious person, it occurs to us, to explain why those
     8        documents were issued at the time when they were and to
     9        aver the Company's bona fides is Mr. Preston.  That has two
    10        advantages:  first, he is the head of the Company and can
    11        be expected to have taken the decision that those documents
    12        should be issued; secondly, it means we do not have to call
    13        any additional evidence, as he is coming back anyway.
    14
    15        My Lord, the problem we have is that since he is under oath
    16        and in the middle of his evidence, we cannot talk to him
    17        without your Lordship's leave; and I would need
    18        your Lordship's leave to ask him about that aspect of the
    19        case, which of course he has not been asked about yet
    20        because the reply was only served after he had gone out of
    21        the witness box.
    22
    23        What I would like to be able to do is to serve, if
    24        appropriate, a short additional statement by him,
    25        explaining the circumstances in which those documents were
    26        written and issued to the Press and to the people in the
    27        stores, what his belief was about the truth of what his
    28        Company was saying -- which he must surely be entitled to
    29        do.
    30
    31        The only other thing is Mr. Bone.  The news, as
    32        your Lordship knows, is not brilliantly good.  He has been
    33        told that there are no circumstances in which he can come
    34        to court in the next fortnight.  From what I have been told
    35        -- and I have not had a final update -- Mrs. Brinley-Codd
    36        and I have made the decision we will not call him in any
    37        event.  If we obtain the relevant material from the
    38        doctors, which we hope to do, then I shall make an
    39        application to your Lordship to have his statement read
    40        under the Civil Evidence Act on one of the grounds which is
    41        set out in Ord. 38 r. 25, namely, that he is unfit.  If
    42        I do not, then I will have to live with my decision not to
    43        call him.  But what it does mean is that Mrs. Hovi can keep
    44        her place this coming Friday ---
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    47
    48   MR. RAMPTON: -- since I undertake not to call him as a live
    49        witness.  (Pause)
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  I was sort of compiling my list. 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That was the first thing I was going to ask
    54        you about.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:  I have not completed it.  I am hoping to do that
    57        today over lunch.  It will include, if you like, the As and
    58        Bs together.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Will you be able to divide them into As and
 
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