Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 16


     
     1        you can argue about that, but I have not seen that being
     2        so.  The sort of thing which it means to me -- maybe this
     3        is too restrictive -- someone keeps a ledger of sales and
     4        purchases and that ledger is compiled by information given
     5        by a whole number of people, but the person who makes it is
     6        under a duty, he is acting under a duty, when he compiles
     7        that record.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  That seems very restrictive.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is a typical example, you see.
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:  Mr. Rampton said that that rule is applied very
    14        broadly.
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord.  I did not say that.  Mr. Morris does
    17        not always listen very carefully to what I say.  I do not
    18        blame him because I am frightfully boring, I know.   What
    19        I said was that the word "duty" has been broadly
    20        interpreted.  On the contrary, if one looks at paragraph
    21        22-12 of Phipson on page 591, one finds (though this would
    22        need to be looked at in the light of any recent authority
    23        since it is five years old now) that the suggestion at the
    24        very least is canvassed that record, contrary to what
    25        Mr. Morris is supposing, does have the kind of restricted
    26        sense which your Lordship suspects it of having.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Would you like to read it out aloud?
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:  Starting actually at 22-12:  "The question of what
    31        is a 'record' is also not entirely free from difficulty.
    32        It has been doubted whether a file of correspondence is a
    33        record for the purposes of the Criminal Evidence Act 1965.
    34        The same reasoning may apply to the similar provisions
    35        relating to 'records' in civil cases governed by section
    36        4.  In practice, the problem will often not be a problem in
    37        civil proceedings, where files of correspondence are
    38        frequently agreed to be admissible, and section 2 will
    39        often render correspondence admissible in any event.  In
    40        order to satisfy the requirements of section 4(1), it is
    41        necessary to produce the records themselves.  Summaries of
    42        other records will not suffice".  Then it says:  "In the
    43        same way, the reports" -----
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, can you carry on?
    46
    47   MR. RAMPTON:  I will.  "In the same way, the reports of
    48        inspectors of companies appointed by the Secretary of State
    49        for Trade are not records, being again secondary sources of
    50        information.  It is thought that minutes of meetings 
    51        constitute records, even though they may not be complete. 
    52        It is not a condition of admissibility that the record 
    53        should be proved to be full and accurate, only that there
    54        was a duty to keep it.  Against that must be set the
    55        decision in Re D. (An Infant) where it was held that the
    56        notes which the solicitor had taken of his interview with
    57        the mother of a child in disputed wardship proceedings,
    58        apparently because they were not an attempt at a complete
    59        record:  but this is to read words into the section.
    60        Records include company minutes, cheques, bank statements,

Prev Next Index