Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 08
1 between us and Mr. Rampton as to what the issues are.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, very well.
4
5 I will not say anything in addition to what I said on the
6 principles, as I understand them, a few minutes ago. What
7 I have really got to decide before Mr. Secrett comes to the
8 witness box to give evidence is what parts of his
9 statements forecast admissible evidence either of fact or
10 opinion which he is entitled to put before me at the
11 request of the Defendants for me to consider in due course,
12 and what parts of his statement forewarning his evidence
13 really have to be taken as argument, and nothing more than
14 argument, which I will be happy to consider from the
15 Defendants as argument in due course but cannot possibly
16 accept from the witness box or the written statement of a
17 witness and, applying that test, the parts of Mr. Secrett's
18 first statement -- I am not concerned with any part of his
19 second statement -- but the parts of his first statement
20 which I rule to be argument alone and not admissible as
21 evidence of fact or of expert opinion are the first
22 complete paragraph and the second complete paragraph on
23 page 3, running from, "the information available to me"
24 down to "in their US restaurants". The first words of the
25 next paragraph may not be admissible in evidence but I am
26 content they go in as introduction to what follows.
27
28 Then, turning to page 4, having listened to what Mr. Morris
29 and Ms. Steel say, the parts which I rule to be
30 objectionable and inadmissible in evidence start from
31 "Therefore, in my considered opinion", not as I first
32 indicated from, "During the 1970s and at least up until the
33 end of 1986", run from "Therefore, in my considered
34 opinion" to the bottom of that page, and then 6.5 I allow
35 in, but the remainder of page 5 not.
36
37 Page 6 should not go in, save for the last paragraph on
38 that page, which continues onto the top of the next page
39 and then the remainder of the statement from, "In the light
40 of the above" to the end should not go in.
41
42 For the avoidance of any doubt, the third complete
43 paragraph on page 5, "I note that Mr. Cesca", the second
44 complete paragraph on page 6, "in the continued absence of
45 such proof".
46
47 MR. MORRIS: I am sorry, I lost you there.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The second complete paragraph on page 6,
50 starting "in the continued absence of such proof".
51
52 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The second complete paragraph on page 7, "In
55 conclusion, I would like to state", and the parts of the
56 last paragraph starting, "It is my considered view" and
57 ending, "until the end of 1986" are clearly, in my view,
58 argument and not evidence of opinion let alone any fact.
59 They are not admissible, however much the Defendants may
60 adopt them, and I may, therefore, take them into account as
