Day 121 - 04 May 95 - Page 72


     
     1
     2   MS. STEEL:  If there was not any direct rebuttal in the sense of
     3        actually calling one of the people who was named on the
     4        sheets, we just wanted to continue the general point of
     5        where we have got witnesses -----
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What the situation would be is you would be
     8        arguing at the end of the day, well, there we have got
     9        prima facie evidence of that, but on this occasion and that
    10        occasion, not at this store and not the people listed on
    11        the document, we ask you to find that the practice has been
    12        going on of clocking people out at 10 or 12 and paying them
    13        a bonus because they have actually worked on later, and
    14        therefore look at that document with a critical eye and
    15        indeed do not accept it, do not attach weight to it as
    16        evidence, then that is all part of the argument at the end
    17        of the day, and I will have to make up my mind about it if
    18        I think it is a relevant issue.  But the first thing is you
    19        have to decide whether you accept the document in question
    20        as an admissible document saying what it purports to say.
    21
    22   MR. MORRIS:  What I am trying to clarify is, we can accept it as
    23        an accurate representation of what was put in by a human
    24        being.  It does not necessarily mean we accept what the
    25        human being did was accurate, based upon information.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You may not be accepting that, you will be
    28        accepting it is some evidence that X worked so many hours
    29        in that week.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:  At least.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, no in that fortnight that X worked,
    34        say, 89.12 hours in that fortnight, you may say because of
    35        other evidence in the case you ask me to attach no weight
    36        to that because you have got other evidence in the case
    37        which casts doubt on it being accurate.  I mean, I am
    38        hesitant about going further because, on the one hand, it
    39        would obviously be convenient if you accepted it, to that
    40        extent, but on the other hand I must not persuade you to
    41        accept something you have reservations about.  As I have
    42        said, if you do not, the procedures which have to be
    43        followed under this, to give it the status which Mr.
    44        Rampton wants, are fairly simple.  If my recollection is
    45        right, all he has to do is call some witness about the
    46        procedure which was followed.
    47
    48   MR. RAMPTON:  I may not even have to do that, it is a
    49        certificate.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  All you have to do is to produce your 
    52        certificate to that effect. 
    53
    54   MR. RAMPTON:  What I was going to say was, again I am trying to
    55        be helpful, there is really there no point in the
    56        Defendants objecting to these documents for the sake of
    57        it -- except, of course, it costs time and money, which,
    58        I do not know -- because, as your Lordship has just said,
    59        the mechanism for establishing the documents as prima facie
    60        evidence is a simple one.  Second, and I want to make this

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