Day 190 - 23 Nov 95 - Page 04
1 Mr. Rampton or response from you as to what the legal
2 situation is.
3
4 MS. STEEL: I just want to say, as Dave said, I think this
5 objection has come very late in the day. Ms. Lamb is
6 here. I think that the fairest course would be for her to
7 give her evidence and then have an argument at a later date
8 about whether some parts are completely worthless because
9 they are hearsay or not, so that she can get her evidence
10 out of the way.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: A modified version of that approach I would
13 not stand in the way of, but it is entirely a matter for
14 Mr. Rampton as to whether he takes the objection because,
15 if he does take the objection, it is not my business to
16 listen to evidence which is in fact inadmissible, if any of
17 it is inadmissible.
18
19 MS. STEEL: I might agree with that if this had been raised
20 earlier, but Mr. Rampton has chosen to leave it until this
21 morning.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not matter when it is raised. If a
24 fundamental objection is raised, I have to decide it.
25 I cannot say that I will hear inadmissible evidence because
26 the objection has only just been made, and sort it out
27 later. It is not my job to hear inadmissible evidence.
28
29 It is a contradiction in terms, in fact, to say
30 inadmissible evidence. It is not evidence, and it is not
31 my job to hear that which is not evidence. So it is not
32 quite as simple as that, although I would encourage any
33 solution which does enable me to hear things (I have to use
34 a Latin phrase in this case, because it is the only one
35 which summarises it) de bene esse, and then sort out later
36 (a) what is admissible as evidence, and (b) among the
37 evidence which is technically admissible, what I can attach
38 any weight to at all.
39
40 MS. STEEL: I would have thought that in the main it is the
41 second question that applies anyway, that it is a question
42 of -----
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not prejudging it, but there are some
45 matters which Mr. Morris wants to adduce which, on the face
46 of it, are inadmissible. There may not be too many of them
47 amongst the matters in the interview with Mark Ryan; and,
48 having put brackets round the parts that Mr. Morris does
49 not want to ask Ms. Lamb about in the Lovell White Durrant
50 interview, there may not be much dispute over the other
51 matters there. I do not know. But, certainly, when we
52 come to Lynval, it appears to me to be a very kettle of
53 fish, because my preliminary view is that just about all
54 the Lynval interview is inadmissible.
55
56 MS. STEEL: I think it is worth bearing in mind that Lynval was
57 Ms. Lamb's Manager.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, that does not matter. He has to be
60 speaking on behalf of the Company, rather than on behalf of
