Day 172 - 12 Oct 95 - Page 43
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Which is the part?
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4 MS. STEEL: There were a couple of bits. There is, just as an
5 example, on the bottom of page 3 about employees being
6 asked to work extra hours and there is a sentence there
7 saying, "Most staff were happy to do so". Then at the
8 bottom of page 8 there is talk about the visit of Paul
9 Preston visiting the store, and going onto the following
10 page, the top of page 9 it says, "Both management and crew
11 were pleased by this interest and encouragement".
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13 I mean, this is really just as an example, but given that
14 we did not object to that at the time and there are other
15 examples that I could point to but I do not think there is
16 a lot of point doing it at the moment, can we object during
17 -- I do not know -- closing speeches, or something like
18 that, saying that is obviously hearsay.
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20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You need not bother about statements which
21 are Civil Evidence Act statements which I am merely asked
22 by Mr. Rampton to take into account as we go along through
23 the hearing because you can mount an argument at the end of
24 the case, if you wish, that parts of those statements are
25 not admissible, whether because they fall foul of the
26 hearsay rule or for any other reason. If, at any stage, a
27 witness is to be called by Mr. Rampton or Mr. Atkinson and
28 their statement is to be read out loud before they go on to
29 give the rest of their evidence, you will be well advised
30 to be ready with an objection to make there and then so we
31 can have summary argument, as we have had today, I can rule
32 on it and it will either be omitted or read according to my
33 ruling. In relation to any part which is left in at the
34 end of the day, you can argue that it is not admissible for
35 any reason.
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37 MS. STEEL: That includes ones that have gone by where we did
38 not realise we should have made an objection?
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40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. If I positively excluded something, for
41 instance, as I have done in some instances here, then you
42 are stuck with that ruling because it has not gone in
43 evidence at all.
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45 MS. STEEL: Right. OK. But anything else we can raise?
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47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, you can always come back to on. You
48 want to do some reading, Mr. Morris?
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50 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Can I just say that it is going to be
51 obviously a massive job preparing closing speeches and I
52 was personally planning to concentrate on our evidence
53 rather than worrying about, you know, pulling apart ----
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55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not mean because you do not take an
56 objection in your final speech that you are conceding that
57 something is admissible, because when I sit down to write
58 my judgment I will have to apply my mind to whether
59 material is admissible and, therefore, I can rely on it or
60 not, quite regardless of whether you take the point.
