Day 169 - 04 Oct 95 - Page 27


     
     1        expert in French law; I have to go by what the lawyer has
     2        said) I will do so, if your Lordship would like me to do
     3        so.  There is no secret about it.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is entirely up to you.  At the moment, I
     6        have no idea whatsoever why they should be under any
     7        liability under French law if they give evidence in any
     8        English court.
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  I will explain it as best I can.  In addition to
    11        the original union dispute, there are pending in France
    12        three actions, two by the franchisee, Vilpaix, and one by
    13        Monsieur Antelinos in which Mr. Lamti, amongst others, is
    14        the Respondent.  I do not call him the defendant for
    15        reasons which will become apparent to your Lordship in a
    16        moment.  Those proceedings which are variously for kinds
    17        of  -----
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So there are two by the franchisee and
    20        another action in which he is Respondent?
    21
    22   MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Lamti is Respondent in all of those processes,
    23        I call them, all of those cases.  In two of them the
    24        Complainant is Vilpaix and in one the Complainant is
    25        Monsieur Antelinos personally.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Who is the Respondent in all three?
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  Monsieur Lamti, the Defendants' witness, amongst
    30        others.  He is Respondent in all three.  They are all
    31        criminal proceedings and they concern accusations of things
    32        like bribery, theft, false testimony, subornation of
    33        witnesses, matters of that kind.  French law allows a
    34        Complainant to make a subsidiary or collateral claim for
    35        compensation.  In the third of those actions by Monsieur
    36        Antelinos which is for false testimony, he,
    37        Monsieur Antelinos, makes a subsidiary or dependent claim
    38        in the criminal proceedings for compensation against
    39        Mr. Lamti.  All those three cases are presently seized of
    40        the examining Magistrate.
    41
    42        The advice which Monsieur Antelinos has been given is this,
    43        that under French law, while a case in which one is a
    44        participant, whether one is a witness or a subsidiary
    45        party, while those proceedings (which are in French
    46        described as Proces Penal) are in the hands of the
    47        examining magistrate, the whole of the proceeding is
    48        cloaked with a secrecy called the Secret de la
    49        Restriction.
    50 
    51        The consequence of that is that nobody who is a participant 
    52        (and I use that word as a translation of the French word 
    53        concourant) is permitted to speak about the case, whether
    54        in person or in writing and is not permitted to disclose to
    55        any third party in the outside world anywhere any document
    56        which is the subject of the Proces Penal.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  How do you spell the name Mr. Touilloux?
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  T-O-U-I-L-L-O-U-X.

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