Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 16
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: The Civil Evidence Act statements that we have,
5 they are all evidence as from when they are served and they
6 are not challenged; is that correct? They are all
7 currently evidence; we do not have to refer to them in open
8 court if we do not want to?
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think it is quite as simple as
11 that. If a statement is proffered for agreement, then you
12 can accept it as such and rely upon it. I had assumed that
13 anything which is in the bundles under something in the
14 index which indicates that it is the subject of a Civil
15 Evidence Act Notice, then Mr. Rampton on the one hand on
16 behalf of the Plaintiffs is going to ask me to take it into
17 account in the evidence and you are going to ask me to do
18 so on behalf of your witnesses.
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20 MR. MORRIS: But we are equally entitled to rely on -----
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause for a moment. If that is so, then
23 by the time you come to make your speeches it will be
24 evidence in the case and we need not consider any
25 sophistications or complications; is that right?
26
27 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that is my understanding. Until such
28 time as, in the normal way, the statement is actually
29 either read out in court or read by the judge, it does not
30 become evidence. It is proffered in due course as
31 evidence. Particularly where the Defendants' Civil
32 Evidence Act statements are concerned, I shall have
33 something to say about the admissibility of their contents
34 in due course. I have not done that yet because we have
35 been getting on with the oral evidence. So, it would not
36 be right for Mr. Morris to suppose that he can treat
37 everything in all Civil Evidence Act statements as being
38 evidence in court at this stage.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you for saying that. That is another
41 point. I think all you need to say at the moment,
42 Mr. Rampton, is that in any case where your clients have
43 served a statement on the Defendants and made it subject of
44 a Civil Evidence Act Notice, you propose in due course to
45 ask me to treat that as evidence whether it is actually
46 read out in open court or I am merely asked to read it to
47 myself.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: That is absolutely right.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The answer to your question then is anything
52 in McDonald's Civil Evidence Act statements is or will
53 become evidence in the case in the terms in which it
54 appears in the statement.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that is an important last qualification
57 because, plainly, what I proffer is the whole statement,
58 the whole context ---
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
