Day 190 - 23 Nov 95 - Page 12
1 commercial situations slight evidence of agency
2 has been accepted."
3
4 My Lord, the top of page 410 -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Could I just pause there? So far as (b) and
7 (c) are concerned, under Article 101, do you accept that
8 Ms. Blackett would fall within that category?
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, my Lord. I said that it is likely that
11 I did, because -----
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The only reason I ask is, perhaps it is
14 helpful to mark where the matter is clear one way or the
15 other or might depend upon, for instance, any evidence
16 which Ms. Lamb gave, as to how she may be approached and on
17 what basis in the first place.
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: That is why I said "likely", because I am not
20 quite sure. If the position were that Ms. Lamb had rung up
21 Headquarters (which apparently she did) and said: "I need
22 certain information. I am writing a newspaper article.
23 I am a journalist. I am writing a newspaper article for
24 the Guardian. To whom shall I apply for this information",
25 and she had been referred to Ms. Blackett, for example, and
26 Ms. Blackett is in a senior position, then one would say it
27 is very likely the court would infer that either there was
28 express or implied authority, at the very least, in
29 Ms. Blackett to make that kind of statement in answer to
30 Ms. Lamb's enquiry.
31
32 It is quite different, however, as we submit, where
33 Ms. Lamb goes into a store as an employee or as an ordinary
34 member of the public and simply chats up -- if I may put it
35 like that -- one or other of the Assistant Managers --
36 because that is all they were, either of these two.
37
38 My Lord, I do now have also some evidence, which I will
39 come to later on, actual evidence from the time, of what
40 Managers were or were not allowed by the Company -- this is
41 in relation to the question of express authority, and here
42 we have express prohibition -- in relation to speaking to
43 the press. I will show those to your Lordship later on
44 when I come to the actual facts.
45
46 Can I go over the page -- I should say that the last
47 sentence in the Comment on page 409 of Bowstead suggests to
48 us that what is meant there is, if it looks as though the
49 agent was an employee of the company at the time when the
50 statement was made, then the court is not going to reject
51 the evidence on that ground, unless it be proved by the
52 objecting party that, indeed, he was no longer employed in
53 that capacity.
54
55 My Lord, top of page 410:
56
57 "Where there is agency, 'it is important to
58 distinguish between authority to do an act and
59 authority to talk about it.'"
60
