Day 072 - 12 Jan 95 - Page 67
1 before your Lordship in the proper form, why, then we will
2 deal with it.
3
4 That said, I see absolutely no reason to give any kind of
5 undertaking whatsoever. I am not saying what would happen,
6 but I can imagine circumstances in which the company would
7 be quite at liberty to sack somebody who had come to this
8 court to give evidence. I say no more about it than that.
9
10 MS. STEEL: Can Mr. Rampton explain what he means by that?
11 I did not understand that at all.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I can imagine that if someone came to court
14 and demonstrably had knowingly given false evidence against
15 their employer, some employers would find that quite
16 inconsistent with the continuing employee-employer
17 relationship. All I can say is that if they come to court
18 and give evidence either on their oath or affirmation,
19 which evidence is truthful to the best of their knowledge
20 and belief, then they should have nothing to fear.
21
22 I just cannot -- I do not think it is right for me to ask
23 for undertakings or assurances from McDonald's. It is not
24 an arena I want to enter into. I do not think -- as a
25 Judge, I cannot in advance give them any kind of guarantee
26 or protection, save to say if they have honest and helpful
27 evidence to give, and relevant evidence to give, it might
28 well be part of their public duty to do so, but I feel
29 apprehensive about even saying that. I certainly do not
30 think I can ask for any assurance or undertaking from any
31 party.
32
33 It is a difficult situation; people have just got to have
34 the courage of their convictions.
35
36 MS. STEEL: For the sake of clarity -----
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You can certainly -- you have certain powers
39 to obtain directions that people actually do attend to give
40 evidence. There might be circumstances in which I would
41 allow you to call somebody into the witness box without
42 actually providing a written statement in advance. I can
43 imagine a situation might arise, for instance, where
44 someone has told you this, that or the other had happened,
45 then got cold feet and did not want to make a written
46 statement. If you told me that was so, I might very well
47 say: "Right, you do not have to serve a statement in
48 advance; you can have a subpoena" which means a court order
49 they actually attend. You can call them into the witness
50 box and ask them questions. Of course, they might then be
51 co-operative or they might be not co-operative.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: I had one understanding which is that if you called
54 someone by subpoena they are, effectively, a hostile
55 witness.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, that does not follow at all. In fact,
58 there are very many situations where people indicate they
59 would prefer to be subpoenaed, so that vis-a-vis the
60 opposing party or, indeed, the rest of the world, they can
