Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 22


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:   According to Mr. Rampton-----
     3
     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.
     7
     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-----
    13
    14   MR JUSTICE BELL:  You say that, it may not be as easy as...  You
    15        carry on, Mr. Morris.
    16
    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.
    20
    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.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:   Well, we wish to adduce it in evidence.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   As?
    30
    31   MR. MORRIS:   As part of the evidence in respect of admission
    32        against interest.
    33
    34   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Right.
    35
    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.
    48
    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.
    59
    60        Again, I will give serious consideration to this and I will

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