Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 26


     
     1        the documents which are in truth, as statement of facts,
     2        probably inadmissible, and ask them whether they agree that
     3        the facts stated in those documents should be treated as
     4        facts, not a rebuttal of facts, but prime facie evidence of
     5        truth of their contents; and they should do the same.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I did suggest a few months ago now that a
     8        list be made of computer printouts or survey results, so
     9        that one can find out if there is agreement, as to what the
    10        status is.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  I believe that is something which we should try to
    13        attend to before the end of the long vacation, I really do,
    14        because otherwise we are going to be -----
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It would be ludicrous if in parts of my
    17        judgment I were to say:  "I have had lots of apparently
    18        useful information from which I would draw these
    19        conclusions which might be very helpful in deciding this
    20        case, but in fact, since it does not amount to evidence,
    21        having mentioned it, I have to put it completely on one
    22        side."
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  Quite.  If the Defendants do not accept the
    25        admissibility of all or any of these documents, then we
    26        have to go down -- because we shall want to rely on it as
    27        records of fact -- the Civil Evidence Act road section by
    28        section.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What at the moment I am minded to think is
    31        that no party can say:  "Because this document has been
    32        produced by the other side, we will use that part of it",
    33        but dispute the admissibility as evidence of another part
    34        of it.
    35
    36   MR. RAMPTON:  Plainly not, because it is not a question of the
    37        effect of the words; it is a question of whether the
    38        information is admissible as evidence at all.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Thank you.
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, the next matter, I think Mr. Morris asked
    43        for documents from America showing the length of service of
    44        the hourly paid employees.  He derived that application
    45        from something Mr. Beavers said.  I believe, having
    46        reflected upon perhaps your Lordship's prompting, what
    47        Mr. Stein said about it -- Mr. Stein is the person who
    48        knows of course; although Mr. Beavers may have been trying
    49        to help, as so many other people have done, it is perhaps
    50        best to concentrate on what Mr. Stein said -- Mr. Morris, 
    51        I think, refined his application to an arbitrary group of 
    52        stores -- perhaps he said "Company owned" stores -- in 
    53        Chicago.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Chicago, yes.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  My rhetorical question is:  what on earth good
    58        would that do?  Even if it could be done easily by somebody
    59        tapping a button in a shop, looking for that kind of
    60        information, a further perhaps important question, or as

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