Day 205 - 17 Jan 96 - Page 52
1 soon as possible, because it obviously concerns Ms. Steel
2 and it keeps cropping up, questions on the Fairgrieve
3 documents. There was a muddle about them originally, which
4 is why he had to go away again when he was recalled.
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: Certainly, Mrs. Brinley-Codd will have heard that
7 and will attend to it.
8
9 There are two things I need to mention before the
10 Defendants explain their position on the schedule. The
11 first is, your Lordship will remember that we have a
12 witness called Eddy Benson -- and that is a girl, not a
13 boy -- who has been in America this past year or so and
14 has, therefore, been imposed with a Civil Evidence Act
15 notice. She gives evidence on paper about two things: one
16 is a conversation she had with an Observer journalist
17 concerning rainforest policy; and the other is in relation
18 to publication. She is back in this country now. I tell
19 your Lordship that because of course her reappearance in
20 this country is absolute invalidate, in our belief, and if
21 it does not, I would not want your Lordship to think that
22 what was said in the original notice was still true and it
23 is not, which was that she was overseas. She is not
24 overseas any more, and I therefore thought it was only
25 right to tell your Lordship that.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is proposed to call her?
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: No, I think probably not. I thought about that.
30 I have looked at what she has to say. Given the review
31 which I have conducted with the publication evidence and,
32 more particularly, the rainforest evidence, I do not really
33 see any need to call her at all. I suppose it does mean
34 that, as she still has a Civil Evidence Act notice, it is
35 only that part of it which false under the overseas
36 disqualification which is invalidated. Theoretically, I
37 suppose the Defendants could serve a counter notice. It
38 does not actually make any difference at all because a
39 counter notice has no compulsive force at all. All it does
40 is disqualify me from relying on her evidence if I do not
41 call her. Since I do not propose to do that anyway, it
42 does not really matter.
43
44 MS. STEEL: In case we forget, and the Plaintiffs change their
45 mind at a later date, then I think we do want to serve a
46 counter notice, and if we could do that informally by doing
47 it now.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just so we observe the formalities, albeit in
50 a somewhat informal way, what I have said is that there is
51 deemed to be a counter notice, so if her evidence is to be
52 relied upon she has to be called.
53
54 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, unless your Lordship exercises a discretion
55 to dispense with that which is -----
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are not asking me to do that.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: No, I am not but I -----
60
