Day 310 - 04 Dec 96 - Page 03
1 evidence which is introduced into the case simply for the
2 purpose of damages is inadmissible. That is to be found
3 both in Polly Peck and in Prager v. The Times. Prager v.
4 The Times your Lordship, I think, has in one of our earlier
5 bundles of authorities.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I had that before.
8
9 MR. RAMPTON: It was Lord Justice Purchas, I think, who
10 reaffirmed that rule in Prager.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: I am not sure if Mr. Rampton answered the
13 question. It is not a question of inadmissibility, because
14 it has been admitted ---
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, it is.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: -- as evidence.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well -----
21
22 MR. MORRIS: It has been heard.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may have been admitted. Lots of things
25 have been admitted in this case which are inadmissible. A
26 great deal of them are because you waste more time making
27 the objection than letting it go. That cannot be said of
28 environment/index.html">litter. But, at the end of the day, I have to decide
29 whether they really have any relevance to a valid issue.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: If they are not legitimately in the case by way
32 of justification, then they have no place in the case at
33 all, and although there has been evidence given about them
34 the evidence must be rejected for all purposes by the
35 court.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I must say, I keep asking these
38 questions about whether they go to damages, but damages are
39 such a broad brush that the number of factors I have
40 mentioned I would have thought are hardly likely to make
41 any difference to damages, whether at the end of the day
42 I think the damages should be a large sum, a middling sum
43 or a modest sum. I do not mean to suggest that even if
44 they were relevant they would change the picture.
45
46 MR. RAMPTON: With respect, I whole-heartedly agree with that.
47 I have talked about knocking a few pence off here and
48 there, and I adhere to that. If your Lordship thought that
49 the true stings, the serious stings of the leaflet, were
50 all unproved, then the little bits and pieces that have
51 been, in your Lordship's view, proved along the way would
52 make absolutely no difference at all.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It seems to me that that must be so. If your
55 clients do not succeed, then that is it anyway. If they do
56 succeed, the damages are going to fall into a small,
57 middling or large bracket.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: May I suggest, and this is leaping ahead, that
60 the only way in which they go down to small would be if one
