Day 115 - 06 Apr 95 - Page 57


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just give me an example so he can talk in
     3        practical terms about it.  Give me a page number in the
     4        letter and paragraph, for instance.
     5
     6   MS. STEEL:  I do not know really the whole of it.
     7
     8   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, perhaps I can help, because I do not
     9        believe Ms. Steel (it is not her fault and I have said that
    10        before) understands this very well.  At the penultimate,
    11        and this is an obvious page upon which the Defendants might
    12        wish to rely, it is page numbered 5 at the top against an
    13        oblique sign under "Conditions of Employment of Catchers".
    14        This is the penultimate page of the bundle I have got.  At
    15        the right at the bottom it says "Schedule loading times".
    16        It says: "As a guideline these will be", and then it gives
    17        different times for different numbers of drawers of
    18        chickens.
    19
    20        My Lord, as an expression of intention by the company, it
    21        is what it says it is, if this is a Sun Valley document; no
    22        more than that.  As proof of what actually happened, if it
    23        did, it is not any evidence at all.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:   No.  I want them as evidence of what the
    26        company ----
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:  Was saying at the time.
    29
    30   MS. STEEL:  Yes.  I do not really quite understand the
    31        particular distinction.  The whole document is about the
    32        conditions of employment which they lay down.  It may be
    33        that they do not work exactly -- that when the workers have
    34        to work fast, for example, they do not adhere exactly to
    35        that, but the point is this is what the company, I do not
    36        know, so you can have some idea of how the company is
    37        thinking or working.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am only enquiring into it because I do not
    40        want you, as it were, to get caught out at the end of the
    41        day thinking that if a document goes in you have evidence
    42        of a matter of fact, and then a point is taken later, no.
    43        Whatever the situation is, is any formality required with
    44        regard to a Civil Evidence Act Notice, Mr. Rampton?
    45
    46   MR. RAMPTON:  No, not if your Lordship dispenses with it, of
    47        course it is not.  Sometimes it is important to distinguish
    48        the purpose for which one wants to serve a Civil Evidence
    49        Act Notice.  As your Lordship pointed out much earlier in
    50        the case, it is no good sometimes just plonking a Civil 
    51        Evidence Act Notice on the whole document.  What you have 
    52        to do is identify the statement or statements in the 
    53        document whose truth or whose quality of evidence you want
    54        to rely on to prove an actual fact in the case.
    55
    56        A document as a document, authentic if it be, is evidence
    57        of no more than what it says on the face of it.  It does
    58        not prove anything really than that somebody said it at a
    59        particular time.
    60

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