Day 279 - 12 Jul 96 - Page 15
1 refresh people's memories. If you put a note in front of
2 someone in the witness box and say, "Is what that note says
3 correct?" and he says, "Yes", that does not make the note
4 evidence. He is, in effect, saying what is in the note.
5 So, it is his evidence.
6
7 MR. MORRIS: If he says it is not correct, can it then be relied
8 on as evidence?
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. But what I propose to do, unless you
11 have got an argument now, it is putting off the evil day
12 yet again but in case you think it is important, you have
13 got someone, you hope, coming to represent you on another
14 matter next Wednesday or Thursday, you can pursue the
15 argument now and put me to a decision on it if you want and
16 if you are prepared to do that, well and good. But I am
17 going to give you the option of putting it off until
18 Wednesday and Thursday, because at the moment -- or
19 Thursday -- because at the moment it appears to me that it
20 stops you in your tracks in relation to all the parts of
21 Miss Clauphine Carston's statement, or letter, which Mr.
22 Rampton objected to. There may be the odd sentence here
23 and there in those parts, there is one sentence which may
24 be admissible anyway. There are bits and pieces which may
25 not rely upon quotes, but at the moment I think it is
26 impossible to tease them out from those which do rely on
27 quotes. One cannot, in other words, take a blue pencil to
28 the letter.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I am not saying that there is a need to be
31 made straight away but our position would be, in any event,
32 that we are entitled to rely on the fact that she was told
33 these matters, because in any event the plaintiffs are
34 relying on, for the counterclaim, on the fact of service of
35 witness statements.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, we do not need to read
38 statements and articles for that. The article falls into
39 just the same -- you did not have Miss Clauphine Carston's
40 statement at the time?
41
42 MR. MORRIS: No, but we had the article which is in the
43 pleadings.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You had the article, so really what you are
46 doing is relying on the article for that, which puts it in
47 exactly the same position as all the other newspaper and
48 magazine articles in other spheres.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Then the article would be admissible of the fact
51 that it exists and also that we have verified that these
52 were the quotes which she--
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not going to have it read out on that
55 basis.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: We do not have to read it out. The main thing is
58 it would be admissible. We do not have to read it all
59 out. We are not bothered about reading it all out, but we
60 do want to rely on it. The question is whether we can rely
