Day 051 - 14 Nov 94 - Page 04

     
     1
     2   MS. STEEL:  It is possible but she would like it to be fairly
     3        definite so she knows whether she has to come back.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Someone has to check the position with
     6        Mr. Mallinson, or can we be confident about that now?
     7
     8   MR. RAMPTON:  We cannot be absolutely confident, but I know that
     9        Mr. Mallinson is telephoning his secretary today, so we
    10        will know today.  We will know before Ms. Dibb goes abroad,
    11        I hope, whether he can be inked in as a certainty.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not want to enquire about the details of
    14        her holiday, obviously, but is Ms. Dibb going to be
    15        somewhere where she can get to a phone and communicate
    16        without great difficulty?  I appreciate the whole point of
    17        going away on holiday is not to think about work, but if
    18        she did not mind she can communicate, can she, by phone?
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:  If the Plaintiffs have not found out before she
         leaves, then she will telephone us.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It looks almost certain as if they will know
    24        before she goes but I am only enquiring in case there is
    25        some problem.  Shall we say this, that we will hope to hear
    26        Ms. Dibb's evidence on that Thursday and Friday?
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But there will be communication between the
    31        parties to sort that out, hopefully, within the next 24
    32        hours.
    33
    34   MR. RAMPTON:  We will communicate also, of course, with your
    35        Lordship's clerk.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  In fact, Mr. Hill has gone outside now to
    40        telephone Mr. Mallinson's secretary in the hope that within
         the next ten minutes or so we can have an answer which will
    42        help everybody.  My Lord, can I say what this chart
    43        represents?
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    46
    47   MR. RAMPTON:  It does not represent what I might call tablets of
    48        stone; what it represents is how Mrs. Brinley-Codd
    49        estimates that the case will run if all the witnesses are
    50        called.  What she has done is to put -- I think it is pink 
    51        in your Lordship's copy -- at about the end of March the 
    52        start of what one might call the employment witnesses who 
    53        deal with specific as opposed to general allegations made
    54        by the Defendants, starting from Monday, March 27th.
    55
    56        One can see that there is a blank over Easter to Thursday
    57        13th through, as Americans say, Monday 24th April.  Then
    58        one can see that, assuming that we have to call all our
    59        witnesses and that that is because the Defendants call all
    60        their witnesses, one would not, in fact, finish employment