Day 182 - 02 Nov 95 - Page 68
1 being brought up as to their credit which, strictly
2 speaking, were not remotely relevant or admissible. I am
3 just a bit concerned about that.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I cannot give speculative rulings on that.
6 If you did put the Civil Evidence Act statements in and Mr.
7 Rampton wanted to produce something, and you objected to
8 that, then I would have to rule on the matter.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: Can I say a couple of things? If we say, for
11 example, now that we intend to take statements of Mr. Lamti
12 and Miss Villeneuve-Gallaiz as read -----
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That you intend to put them in under the
15 Civil Evidence Act?
16
17 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, intend to put them in under the Civil
18 Evidence Act, and Mr. Rampton has in his possession
19 something of relevance, obviously, we do not want to vacate
20 those people and have -----
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is why, Mr. Rampton ------
23
24 MR. MORRIS: If he has to come up with it tomorrow or something,
25 so we have time to consider our position.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: To Mr. Rampton's credit, why he has raised it
28 now is we have still got 10 days or whatever it is before
29 they come. The only purpose, two purposes, as I understand
30 it, of him mentioning it today, first of all, to bring it
31 to your attention and to mine that there is this potential
32 problem; secondly, to make it quite clear that you would be
33 better to make your decision virtually straightaway rather
34 than wait into the beginning of next week because that may
35 still give time to sort the matter out.
36
37 I mean, if you came back tomorrow, having thought about it,
38 you could say: "Oh, well, we are going to call them
39 anyway, and we appreciate that we are unlikely to get leave
40 to ask them further matters in chief beyond their
41 statements, but we are going to call them", then you will
42 have to wait and see what, if anything, Mr. Rampton
43 produces. If he does produce something to put in
44 cross-examination and you object to him doing that, then we
45 will have legal argument on it and I will make the ruling;
46 or you could come back tomorrow and say: "As presently
47 advised, we propose to put Mr. Lamti and Miss Villeneuve's
48 statements in under the provisions of section 2 of the
49 Civil Evidence Act". You could then wait and see what, if
50 anything, Mr. Rampton produces, hopefully early next week,
51 and then you could consider what position you are in.
52 I may have missed something, but at the moment I find it
53 very difficult to see how you lose out by following the
54 second of those two courses.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: I think we will consider our position overnight
57 anyway on this subject.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I think you should. Right. We will
60 resume at 2 o'clock tomorrow.
