Day 238 - 22 Apr 96 - Page 05
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2 MR. MORRIS: Well, he is going to be passing through London,
3 you see, on that morning anyway so we asked him whether he
4 could appear that day rather than return to America because
5 he is going to be in France, I think, on the 9th, but I am
6 only asking for an indication.
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8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you ought to give a bit more thought
9 about it. I mean, what you have got to do is to let
10 everybody know how long you expect him to be in-chief.
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12 MR. MORRIS: Right. Well, obviously, we would try to get him
13 over with as quickly as possible.
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15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What you have got bear in mind is what I have
16 said before, and it is not a threat, it is just a fact of
17 life, that if a witness comes and gives evidence in-chief
18 and then is either not cross-examined or only part
19 cross-examined, there are all sorts of difficulties about
20 attaching any weight to what he has said so far, and I said
21 that in relation to one of your employment witnesses. The
22 same will apply to Doctor Campbell.
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24 MR. MORRIS: Yes. That is why I was saying I was looking for an
25 indication from the Plaintiffs how long they might be
26 cross-examining him.
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28 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I cannot possibly say at this stage. I
29 do not know anything about him except I think he is
30 something to do with China.
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32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He speaks of the China Review.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: That is all I can remember so I have no idea how
35 long I would cross-examine him for. All I would say is,
36 plainly, if he does not get here until about midday, which
37 I should have thought was a realistic estimate given the
38 problems of getting out of Heathrow Airport and into
39 Central London, there is plainly a risk if he comes that
40 day that he would not finish.
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42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you have got to give a bit of
43 thought about that. I appreciate the motive behind it but,
44 apart from anything else, what I would propose to do, if he
45 is not going to get here until half past 11, see if
46 Mr. Preston cannot come back on the Friday morning,
47 assuming that he is still being cross-examined, and if you
48 decide that we will not get enough of Doctor Campbell to
49 make it worthwhile on the Friday, the sooner we know the
50 better because it may be possible to preserve Mr. Preston
51 for that day. Then what you have got to do is to
52 concentrate on Mr. Preston from Tuesday on, if necessary,
53 until the following Monday with a gap on the Wednesday.
54
55 MR. MORRIS: Right.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you say, "Well, we would still like to call
58 Doctor Campbell for a day, half a day, or two thirds of a
59 day", there we are, but do you know if and when he could
60 come back later on?
