Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 22
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2 MR. MORRIS: According to Mr. Rampton-----
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I may decide it is. I may look at all the
5 evidence and say that she must have been misinformed.
6 I have to decide.
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8 MR. MORRIS: Yes, as far as we are concerned, whether it is
9 right or wrong in any event, and it is obviously right, but
10 even if it was deemed to be wrong it is a public utterance
11 by their public relations department and therefore it is
12 protected from defamation action. How can we be-----
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14 MR JUSTICE BELL: You say that, it may not be as easy as... You
15 carry on, Mr. Morris.
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17 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Rampton even said that the public relations
18 department would be the most appropriate people to make an
19 admission against interest.
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21 MR JUSTICE BELL: That all related to what David Rose says she
22 said, which is clearly admissible in evidence and which you
23 want to treat as an admission against interest. It does
24 not, may very well not, apply to her own witness statement
25 which has not been adduced in evidence at all.
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27 MR. MORRIS: Well, we wish to adduce it in evidence.
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29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As?
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31 MR. MORRIS: As part of the evidence in respect of admission
32 against interest.
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34 MR JUSTICE BELL: Right.
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36 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I should observe also, while the White
37 Book is open -- and it applies also to the use to which
38 Mr. Morris tried to put Mr. Colin Clarke's statement the
39 other day -- that what is true of Miss Bensilum's statement
40 is also true of Mr. Clarke's statement. Not only can it
41 not be tendered in evidence by the other party, according
42 to sub-rule 11 it cannot be used by the other party for any
43 other purpose than the conduct of the proceedings. It is,
44 in fact, probably a contempt of court to broadcast the
45 contents of a witness statement as distinct from the
46 evidence which has been given in court to anybody outside
47 the ambit of the proceedings.
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49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is a perfectly good policy behind all
50 this, and it applies to statements of your witnesses as to
51 whom you did not call as to statements of McDonald's
52 witnesses, that the idea is that people should be quite
53 open about disclosing the evidence which they propose to
54 rely on. They should be prepared to disclose witness
55 statements in advance without any fear that, if they do not
56 choose to rely on them in due course, they will be held
57 against them in some way, and that is a broad matter of
58 public policy.
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60 Again, I will give serious consideration to this and I will
