Day 279 - 12 Jul 96 - Page 14
1 after the accident, would be admissible in evidence as
2 evidence of the facts contained in it as well as the
3 evidence they had given in the witness box.
4
5 MS. STEEL: But then you could do that without a Civil Evidence
6 Act statement anyway.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You could, but you might also very well want
9 in what they said soon after the accident.
10
11 MS. STEEL: That is what I mean. Throughout this case we have
12 had witnesses saying "I made this statement two years ago"
13 or something, "and I am happy to stand by it" and we have
14 not had to have Civil Evidence Act statements.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, you have not, because you have just
17 affirmed the contents of it. It certainly will not go, as
18 it might be thought, it will not go as to consistency, you
19 see, if you can not only give the oral evidence but you can
20 actually have as evidence what you said at the time. In
21 fact, I think you can forget that for today, because -- I
22 cannot remember when it was asked -- I mean, it certainly
23 has not been done as a matter of normal practice for very
24 many years now, and like you I could never much see the
25 point of it. However, that is all an interesting
26 discussion about the history of civil procedure, but you
27 have still got to get round sub-section 3 and at the moment
28 do not see how you can.
29
30 MS. STEEL: But I was making that point, because it just seems
31 to be, I don't know, it just seems to, like, not make
32 sense. So is it that, you know, that actually there is
33 something else to it and that we do not understand what it
34 is saying? Because it just seems to be contradictory.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, I do not think so. I mean, I have read
37 the bits in Phipson on Evidence and I have also read the
38 bit on it in Cross on Evidence, which is another well-known
39 textbook, and they both say -- Cross Gibson with little
40 illustrations, with As, Bs, Cs, Xs, Ys and Zs with the
41 people concerned. They all confirm the construction I have
42 just given to you. But at the end of the day it may not
43 make much practical difference because one might not be
44 able to attach any weight to it anyway. But that is not
45 the point at the moment.
46
47 MR. MORRIS: I think there is more to this than meets the eye.
48 I mean, first of all, for example, contemporaneous notes.
49 If a person makes notes of what someone said to them of
50 something, say a policeman, and then they say something
51 different in court and their notes are looked at, the notes
52 are evidence in themselves.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, they are not.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: They are not? Even if the witness disagrees of the
57 contents?
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: They certainly have not been put in in this
60 case in that guise. They are generally there to be used to
