Day 169 - 04 Oct 95 - Page 27
1 expert in French law; I have to go by what the lawyer has
2 said) I will do so, if your Lordship would like me to do
3 so. There is no secret about it.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is entirely up to you. At the moment, I
6 have no idea whatsoever why they should be under any
7 liability under French law if they give evidence in any
8 English court.
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: I will explain it as best I can. In addition to
11 the original union dispute, there are pending in France
12 three actions, two by the franchisee, Vilpaix, and one by
13 Monsieur Antelinos in which Mr. Lamti, amongst others, is
14 the Respondent. I do not call him the defendant for
15 reasons which will become apparent to your Lordship in a
16 moment. Those proceedings which are variously for kinds
17 of -----
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So there are two by the franchisee and
20 another action in which he is Respondent?
21
22 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Lamti is Respondent in all of those processes,
23 I call them, all of those cases. In two of them the
24 Complainant is Vilpaix and in one the Complainant is
25 Monsieur Antelinos personally.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Who is the Respondent in all three?
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: Monsieur Lamti, the Defendants' witness, amongst
30 others. He is Respondent in all three. They are all
31 criminal proceedings and they concern accusations of things
32 like bribery, theft, false testimony, subornation of
33 witnesses, matters of that kind. French law allows a
34 Complainant to make a subsidiary or collateral claim for
35 compensation. In the third of those actions by Monsieur
36 Antelinos which is for false testimony, he,
37 Monsieur Antelinos, makes a subsidiary or dependent claim
38 in the criminal proceedings for compensation against
39 Mr. Lamti. All those three cases are presently seized of
40 the examining Magistrate.
41
42 The advice which Monsieur Antelinos has been given is this,
43 that under French law, while a case in which one is a
44 participant, whether one is a witness or a subsidiary
45 party, while those proceedings (which are in French
46 described as Proces Penal) are in the hands of the
47 examining magistrate, the whole of the proceeding is
48 cloaked with a secrecy called the Secret de la
49 Restriction.
50
51 The consequence of that is that nobody who is a participant
52 (and I use that word as a translation of the French word
53 concourant) is permitted to speak about the case, whether
54 in person or in writing and is not permitted to disclose to
55 any third party in the outside world anywhere any document
56 which is the subject of the Proces Penal.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: How do you spell the name Mr. Touilloux?
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: T-O-U-I-L-L-O-U-X.
