Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 43


     
     1        submission, on this occasion at least, simply not right.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If we take it stage by stage, the first thing
     4        is for Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris to produce a Civil Evidence
     5        Act notice.  In this case it would be more than just
     6        putting it on.  We have allowed a certain degree of
     7        informality, but in order to identify just what it is in
     8        respect of which they wish to take advantage of Civil
     9        Evidence Act provisions, they would have to specify who
    10        made the statement and to whom and when, as best as they
    11        could at least.
    12
    13   MR. RAMPTON:  One only has to look at an article -----
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is there any provision for preventing them
    16        from doing that?
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  The first provision which prevents them from doing
    19        that is that they are out of time by many, many, many
    20        months.  That does not stop it happening if your Lordship
    21        thinks it right in all the circumstances at this stage of
    22        the case that it should happen.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think it is really up to you to decide
    25        whether you do it or not.  I do not want you to be under
    26        any allusions about where it might or might not get to.
    27        I will consider it.  There is a long way -- there may be a
    28        big step between something becoming admissible as evidence
    29        because provisions of the Civil Evidence Act and such
    30        procedural rules as apply have been complied with, and a
    31        judge actually attaching any weight to it.
    32
    33        I appreciate that that may be a general problem in this
    34        case where a number of witnesses are over the seas, but it
    35        suffers from the fact that, obviously, it does not have the
    36        same punch as someone who goes into the witness box and is
    37        cross-examined.  Do you remember, that is why I was
    38        particularly keen to see if you were going to call
    39        Dr. Barnard, for instance, which you had already arranged
    40        to do.
    41
    42        Just again, continuing to think aloud, when it is something
    43        which appears in the quotes in a magazine or a newspaper
    44        article, it is very difficult to know whether one can
    45        attach any weight to it.
    46
    47   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, there is an even more difficult
    48        question.  I am not saying I know the answer, but there is
    49        a more difficult question.  A statement attributed by a
    50        journalist to a source, whether identified or not, is in 
    51        any event double hearsay.  It might be if the journalist 
    52        were called, he would be able to say: "Yes, Mr. X told 
    53        me"  -----
    54
    55   MS. STEEL:  She.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  Or she, I do not mind -- he or she might be able
    58        to say:  "Yes, that person said that", but we have not even
    59        got past that.
    60

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