Day 280 - 17 Jul 96 - Page 29


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I must leave you.  You must make your
     3        submissions this afternoon and then I shall rule on it,
     4        because although I am anxious you should be as prepared as
     5        possible the time has got to come--
     6
     7   MS. STEEL:  The other point I wanted to make is that where, for
     8        example, as with a reporter, or so on, a note is taken
     9        contemporaneously of what has been said by the person being
    10        interviewed and this article is prepared from such a note,
    11        then it could be said that that is a document recording
    12        their views in the same way that a statement would be
    13        recording their views, the document being the newspaper,
    14        and therefore it should in any event be allowed in, even on
    15        the -- the quotes that is -- even on the interpretation of
    16        this Act put forward by the Plaintiffs.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But why do you say that?
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:  Because it is a document, and a newspaper report is
    21        a document and it says that--
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   But they are not admissible of the evidence
    24        of the truth of what is contained in them.
    25
    26   MS. STEEL:  What is not?
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   A newspaper.
    29
    30   MS. STEEL:  The section refers to "otherwise a document", so
    31        otherwise anything, that is in a document, is allowed in.
    32        That is document,
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I am sorry.  That is just the same point.
    35        The letter to you, it is a document, her statement,
    36        signed.
    37
    38   MS. STEEL:  Yes, I know, but so is the newspaper article.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But the newspaper article cannot be in any
    41        better position than her statement.
    42
    43   MS. STEEL:  I am not saying it is.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, very well.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:  Because section 2.1 the bit about "in any civil
    48        proceedings a statement made whether or not orally or in a
    49        document or otherwise by any person whether called as a
    50        witness or not, subject to the rules, be admissible of
    51        evidence of any facts stated therein of which direct oral
    52        evidence by him would be admissible."  So we have the
    53        statements of the USDA inspectors which, if they came and
    54        gave direct oral evidence, would be admissible.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    57
    58   MS. STEEL:  Contained in a document, the document being the
    59        newspaper report of their interview which was prepared from
    60        notes or recordings.  I cannot remember what she says in

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