Day 190 - 23 Nov 95 - Page 12


     
     1             commercial situations slight evidence of agency
     2             has been accepted."
     3
     4        My Lord, the top of page 410 -----
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Could I just pause there?  So far as (b) and
     7        (c) are concerned, under Article 101, do you accept that
     8        Ms. Blackett would fall within that category?
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, my Lord.  I said that it is likely that
    11        I did, because -----
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The only reason I ask is, perhaps it is
    14        helpful to mark where the matter is clear one way or the
    15        other or might depend upon, for instance, any evidence
    16        which Ms. Lamb gave, as to how she may be approached and on
    17        what basis in the first place.
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  That is why I said "likely", because I am not
    20        quite sure.  If the position were that Ms. Lamb had rung up
    21        Headquarters (which apparently she did) and said: "I need
    22        certain information.  I am writing a newspaper article.
    23        I am a journalist.  I am writing a newspaper article for
    24        the Guardian.  To whom shall I apply for this information",
    25        and she had been referred to Ms. Blackett, for example, and
    26        Ms. Blackett is in a senior position, then one would say it
    27        is very likely the court would infer that either there was
    28        express or implied authority, at the very least, in
    29        Ms. Blackett to make that kind of statement in answer to
    30        Ms. Lamb's enquiry.
    31
    32        It is quite different, however, as we submit, where
    33        Ms. Lamb goes into a store as an employee or as an ordinary
    34        member of the public and simply chats up -- if I may put it
    35        like that -- one or other of the Assistant Managers --
    36        because that is all they were, either of these two.
    37
    38        My Lord, I do now have also some evidence, which I will
    39        come to later on, actual evidence from the time, of what
    40        Managers were or were not allowed by the Company -- this is
    41        in relation to the question of express authority, and here
    42        we have express prohibition -- in relation to speaking to
    43        the press.  I will show those to your Lordship later on
    44        when I come to the actual facts.
    45
    46        Can I go over the page -- I should say that the last
    47        sentence in the Comment on page 409 of Bowstead suggests to
    48        us that what is meant there is, if it looks as though the
    49        agent was an employee of the company at the time when the
    50        statement was made, then the court is not going to reject 
    51        the evidence on that ground, unless it be proved by the 
    52        objecting party that, indeed, he was no longer employed in 
    53        that capacity.
    54
    55        My Lord, top of page 410:
    56
    57                  "Where there is agency, 'it is important to
    58             distinguish between authority to do an act and
    59             authority to talk about it.'"
    60

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