Day 250 - 15 May 96 - Page 15

     
     1        The grounds...  If Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris is to think, or
     2        to propose to your Lordship, that these sorts of occasions
     3        are not privileged, which, on their face, I would submit
     4        they plainly are, then they must lay the ground for it.  If
     5        the witness should say, no, it was not for the
     6        purpose ----
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is the distinction.  I am clearing my
     9        mind, because when you referred to East Finchley I thought
    10        I had missed something.  If it was at East Finchley it
    11        would depend whether Mr. Nicholson, as an arm of the
    12        company, was obtaining information, let us say, from
    13        Mr. Clare, with a view to getting legal advice in relation
    14        to anticipating proceedings or whether it was just to form
    15        his own judgment on something or other.
    16
    17   MR. RAMPTON:  That may be.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is the factual distinction is it not?
    20
    MR. RAMPTON:  It might be, but it is not this situation anyway
    22        because the meeting is at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert in the
    23        presence of Mrs. Brinley-Codd.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  I do not know if this has come out correct on
    26        the transcript or not, but if it says 'the general
    27        principle is'...
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Where are you?
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:   The part that was read from the White Book.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You are looking at the screen, and I do not
    34        know where you are on the screen.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:   Sorry.  Starting at page 13, line 42.
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  Can I add this?  As your Lordship well knows, I am
    39        only saying this for the benefit of the Defendants, as your
    40        Lordship was really saying a moment ago, a question of
         dominant purpose, and your Lordship knows all the accident
    42        cases, if the purpose of the accident report, its dominant
    43        purpose, is to inform the Company about what happened, then
    44        they are privileged.  But if the purpose of the report's
    45        creation was to take advice, and see how the Company should
    46        conduct itself in the face of an anticipated claim why,
    47        then, it is privileged.  That is the simplest example.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    50 
    51   MS. STEEL:   I mean, from what I have on the screen it appears 
    52        to be that it is talking about communications from the 
    53        solicitors to ----
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Please take a copy of the White Book, borrow
    56        one from someone.  It is hopeless just looking at an
    57        imperfect transcript of something which is in print in a
    58        volume in the court.
    59
    60   MS. STEEL:   It might be completely right, but I do not know.