Day 194 - 01 Dec 95 - Page 16
1 challenged that that is not so, that there was a little red
2 man showing and a green light showing to traffic. He must
3 put that to the witness who is called first to make it
4 clear what the issue is. When the plaintiff's case is
5 finished and the defendant's case starts, and the driver of
6 the vehicle is called, the barrister for the plaintiff does
7 not have to start saying: "I suggest to you that there was
8 a red man showing and a green light to the on-coming
9 driver." It is clear that that is the dispute. All he
10 needs to do, if he wishes to do so, is test the basis of
11 it: "Is it true that you are blind and were carrying a
12 white stick, so you could not see what colour the lights
13 were? Were you talking to your young son and not looking
14 at the lights at all" -- that sort of thing. But what you
15 do not have to put is the obvious conflict between
16 witnesses.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: We are confident in our case, anyway.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have said this several times before, and
21 perhaps wrongly. I just assumed that you were talking to
22 the world at large. But in so far as you were addressing
23 me, you must certainly not work on the basis that because
24 Mr. Rampton has not challenged that in the evidence of your
25 witnesses which is clearly in issue by the time I come to
26 hear it, he is not disputing it. That would be a false
27 assumption to make on your part. You know what is in
28 dispute from the fact that, wherever it has occurred, a
29 witness called by Mr. Rampton has said something which
30 differs from what your witnesses said.
31
32 I can see where the differences are. No doubt you will be
33 give me help, and Mr. Rampton will do, as to where the
34 differences are, in case I have missed them, in due
35 course.
36
37 MR. MORRIS: So, really, the burden of testing evidence is all
38 on the defence ---
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: -- to do it against the Plaintiffs' witnesses.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. The burden of challenging, making it
45 clear where there is a challenge and a dispute, lies mostly
46 on the advocate for the party who comes second.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What the advocate for the party who has come
51 first does not have to do is laboriously spell out that
52 which is obvious to the judge anyway, that there is an
53 issue as to what colour the lights were showing. In many
54 cases, the judge, at the end of the day, does not
55 necessarily have to find it was a green light or a red
56 light or find that they both went over on amber.
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, he may also perfectly well find that both
59 witnesses are perfectly honest and one is simply mistaken.
60
