Day 169 - 04 Oct 95 - Page 60
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2 MR. MORRIS: The same goes for the other person as well.
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know because if she is not involved
5 in the proceedings, then that may be a different situation.
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7 MR. MORRIS: She is still -- her statement still would stand.
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9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You still have Civil Evidence Act grounds
10 because she is not within the jurisdiction. It is a matter
11 for you. I obviously cannot say at the moment that if
12 their statements are read and no evidence is called to
13 contradict it I will accept everything in there as proved
14 because I do not know what arguments Mr. Rampton might
15 bring up, but it is something which you ought to think
16 about, that is all. Where we go from the statements may be
17 another matter because we have all the arguments about
18 franchisees and so on which have already been canvassed to
19 some extent, and I am reluctant to even appear to be giving
20 you advice because if you say, "Well, the judge is inviting
21 us to do that" and the wheel comes off, then I would not
22 want to have you think that that is because we were
23 misled. But I think you have to -- might I suggest you
24 give a little thought to the situation you are in with the
25 French witnesses.
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27 MR. RAMPTON: One thing I do notice is that Mr. Lamti's
28 statement is undated, which is odd. It is signed but it is
29 not dated.
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31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think it matters. It is a statement
32 on which a perfectly valid Civil Evidence Act notice has
33 been ----
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35 MR. RAMPTON: No, I am making a different point. Your Lordship
36 asked if I knew when my French witness started, whether it
37 was before or after Lamti made his statement. Since there
38 is no date on Lamti's statement ----
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40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, but we know it must be sooner than it was
41 served.
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43 MR. MORRIS: It was served literally days after it was received.
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45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not matter. We can identify when it
46 was served and we know it must have been made at some date
47 before then.
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49 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
50
51 MS. STEEL: Is there anything else on that?
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53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, there is nothing else I had in mind. I
54 have raised it now because, if you are going to see someone
55 about meaning, you might turn it over with him or her at
56 the same time. That is all. It seemed more useful for me
57 to mention it now than after you have had a meeting with
58 her.
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60 MS. STEEL: Right. The judgment that you handed down
