Day 190 - 23 Nov 95 - Page 08


     
     1             "Rule
     2                  The general rule both in civil and criminal
     3             cases is that any relevant statement made by a
     4             party is evidence against himself.
     5                  In civil cases, statements made out of
     6             court by a party to the proceedings or by a
     7             person connected with him by any of the
     8             relationships considered in subsequent sections
     9             of this chapter are admissible in evidence
    10             against but not usually in favour of such a
    11             party.  The sections in which such relations are
    12             considered are:
    13
    14                  5. Admissions of nominal representative and
    15             real parties....."
    16
    17        Then the other relevant two, perhaps:
    18
    19                  "7.  Admissions of partners, joint
    20                  contractors, co-trustees and associates.
    21                  8.  Admissions of certain agents and
    22                  referees.
    23
    24                  "These admissions of others may, unless
    25             amounting to estoppels, be contradicted or
    26             explained in the same way as those made by the
    27             party himself.  The admissions of a party are
    28             generally receivable against him whenever made,
    29             while those of others can only affect when made
    30             during the continuance of, and with reference
    31             to, the particular character or interest
    32             entitling them to be proved."
    33
    34        Then there is a passage about criminal cases.  Then 24-03
    35        on page 620, first paragraph:
    36
    37                  "Invariably a party's admission is proved
    38             by another witness.  The witness's evidence is
    39             hearsay because (a) it involves relating to the
    40             court what another person said, and (b) the
    41             admission is tendered as evidence of the truth
    42             of its contents.  In such circumstances, the
    43             evidence is received under an exception to the
    44             rule against hearsay, which until recently, for
    45             the purposes of both criminal and civil
    46             proceedings, was a common law exception.
    47             However, by virtue of sections 9(1) and 9(2)(a)
    48             of the Civil Evidence Act 1968, for the purposes
    49             of civil proceedings, the exception is now
    50             statutory." 
    51 
    52        All that does -- and it is in the bundle that I am reading, 
    53        and I ask your Lordship to look at it, it is tab 3 -- is,
    54        as it were, to restate the common law rule, or to say that
    55        the common law is preserved.
    56
    57        My Lord, I need not, I think, read the passage headed
    58        "Ground of reception", because it is argumentative; nor
    59        the passage (of which we have only a part) "Formal
    60        admissions for the purposes of trial", because we are not

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