Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 62


     
     1        the witness by Mr. Rampton, will you read it anyway or
     2        what?
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I propose to do in relation to that is
     5        only to read what either Mr. Rampton puts to the witness
     6        or what you put to the witness in re-examination.
     7        Obviously, I cannot stop my eyes falling on other parts,
     8        but unless they are strictly proved or accepted by the
     9        witness in evidence, I will not take them into account.
    10
    11        It is a fact of life in litigation that when you are
    12        before a single professional judge, some things will come
    13        out which he just has to or she has to put to one side
    14        because, at the end of the day, they have not been proved
    15        and it is sometimes difficult for people to accept that
    16        one can do that, but one spends one's whole life doing it.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL:   So we do not have -----
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There will be things which you draw to my
    21        attention which, at the end of the day, are not
    22        established and will have to be put to one side, and there
    23        will be things which Mr. Rampton draws to my attention,
    24        either directly or indirectly, for which at the end of the
    25        day there is no good evidence and they will fall to one
    26        side.
    27
    28   MS. STEEL:  If Mr. Rampton does not bring something up, we do
    29        not have to specifically worry about making sure -----
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If Mr. Rampton does not bring something up
    32        out of that darker green labelled bundle, you need not
    33        bother your head.
    34
    35   MS. STEEL:  Right, OK.
    36
    37   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I would have to say this.  Ms. Steel in
    38        a sense has this point to make that it was supplied to
    39        your Lordship for convenience, not so that your Lordship
    40        should spend a long time going through it in advance.  If
    41        the tribunal in fact in this case had been a jury, of
    42        course it could not have done it; would not have done it.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  Part of the confusion came when we got a cover
    45        letter for this it said that "much of the material purely
    46        goes to credit" but it did not identify which -----
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It does not go to anything at all unless it
    49        is put and accepted or otherwise in due course proved.
    50        There are, in fact, special rules with limits as to the 
    51        evidence you can call in relation to credit.  Generally, 
    52        what happens -- I am not being legalistic now -- is that 
    53        something which it is alleged that a witness has said or
    54        written in the past is put to him or her.  If they accept
    55        it, there we are.  If they do not accept it, that is the
    56        last you hear of it, because there are restrictions on
    57        actually calling evidence in rebuttal as to credit.  If we
    58        get to that problem, then we will discuss it again.
    59
    60   MR. MORRIS:  It is just when they said in the cover letter that

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