Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 02
1 Friday, 10th May 1996
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, before I revert to the address your
4 Lordship made yesterday, which I will do in a moment, may
5 I just hand in copies of Mr. Morganti's statement which
6 I will now proceed to do: There are two for the
7 Defendants, and one for his Lordship. (Handed).
8
9 My Lord, the next thing was that the documents which are
10 blanked out in the beginning, I think, of the first
11 counterclaim file?
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes?
14
15 MR. RAMPTON: I reconsidered the question overnight with Mr.
16 Atkinson. I must say this, I think, that we remain
17 convinced that the names of those who attended the meetings
18 are not relevant to any issue in the case, the reason being
19 that if a Plaintiff, or a Defendant by counterclaim,
20 asserts that a Corporation was activated by malice in the
21 publication of the words complained of, he must plead and
22 prove, because a company has no subjective intention of its
23 own, that one or more of the servants or agents of the
24 company who was concerned in the publication complained of
25 was actuated by malice.
26
27 That, the Defendants have not done and, for that reason, we
28 take the view -- though I do not make the submission
29 because I will say why in a moment -- and we adhere to it,
30 that the names of those who attended these meetings are not
31 relevant to an issue in the action.
32
33 However, and having said that, which, I think, for my
34 client's sake I must say, we are persuaded by what your
35 Lordship said yesterday, that no harm is done if we do
36 reveal the names, in particular for this reason, that Mr.
37 Nicholson was at two of the meetings. He could
38 legitimately be asked when he came back in the witness box
39 whether he was at the meetings. He will say "yes", and
40 then he can be cross-examined about the notes, so it seems
41 to us sensible to reveal those names.
42
43 The other thing is, was there any part -- I think it is one
44 of the handwritten notes, it is 14 -- of page 14 which we
45 had blanked out which would have supplied meaning or sense
46 to the B and C at the bottom of the page? The answer to
47 that is probably "no", but I have uncovered the only
48 relevant bit, which is a marginal note which I will also
49 hand in, which says "timing - ABC". Whether that helps or
50 makes confusion worse, I do not know, but I will hand it
51 in.
52
53 What I am going to hand in, because I have not had the time
54 to redo all the pages, is pages completely blanked out
55 except for the names of the people who went to the meetings
56 and that bit of page 14, but it is easy to make the
57 connection with the existing pages once one has got these.
58 I am afraid that these are not numbered because they are
59 taken from the originals.
60
