Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 28


     
     1
     2   MS. STEEL:  Can I ask a question about section 4, because I do
     3        not actually remember a section 4 notice being served?
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have a copy of it, I put it behind.  It
     6        refers to a clerical assistant or a typist in the agency.
     7        I put mine behind.  It was 8th August.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   Was that the one I wrote objecting to?
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL: There were a number and that was one of them.
    12
    13   MR. RAMPTON:  It was the first, number one of the letter of 8th
    14        August.
    15
    16   MS. STEEL:  Effectively serving a counter notice?
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  It would not be a counter notice.  They have
    19        already given their evidence.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:   I have not got the letter in front of me so I do
    22        not know if it is the one I got in mind, but when
    23        I received the letter in August, which was when I got back,
    24        I did object to it.
    25
    26   MR. RAMPTON:  Ms. Steel wrote back and said she objected to it
    27        on the basis that it might not be an attempt by us to
    28        introduce evidence which had not been deposed to by the
    29        witnesses, but that is an objection in law.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That really brings me to the next thing,
    32        because there were also Civil Evidence Act notices in
    33        relation to the notes, I believe -- it may have been the
    34        statements, but I think it was the notes -- of the inquiry
    35        agents who had been called.
    36
    37   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, that was belt and braces and we believe that
    38        we have the common law right in our written submissions so
    39        far as that is concerned.  Section 32, I think it is, which
    40        makes admissible as evidence of their truth the contents of
    41        notes cross-examined on beyond the examination-in-chief
    42        operates independently of a section 2 notice, and we only
    43        served the section 2 notices as a 'just in case', in case
    44        your Lordship did not see the effect of the authorities in
    45        the same way as we did.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The only thing which troubles me about that,
    48        on the authorities you have referred to it seems to me that
    49        the moment either Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris ask any evidence
    50        of the inquiry agents about a matter in their notes which 
    51        was not a matter which they referred to in-chief the whole 
    52        of the notes became admissible in evidence, and that is the 
    53        effect of cases like Gregory.  What troubles me about that
    54        is, well, so be it, but what, if any, weight is it fair to
    55        attach to them if it was unclear, certainly to the
    56        Defendants and I happily confess to me, that that is what
    57        was happening at the time.
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  I will say this, I had an inkling of it.  I do not
    60        think my learned junior would even have that, I am bound to

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