Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 17


     
     1        dealing tickets, confirmation slips and telexes used in
     2        transfers.  Equally bills of lading and cargo manifests
     3        have been held to be records of the appropriate type."
     4        My Lord, I would add to that list, from experience in a
     5        case I did some time ago now, that military records of the
     6        kind that record signals would also fall into this
     7        category, by way of example.
     8
     9        It follows, in my submission, that there must be some doubt
    10         -- it is perhaps a question that Mr. Atkinson could
    11        research a little further -- that there must be some
    12        considerable doubt whether a report by Mr. McShirkie
    13        assumedly under a duty is, indeed, a record for the purpose
    14        of section 4.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Might I just have a moment?  The
    17        Savings & Investment Bank is at 45-13 and 41-61,
    18        apparently.  I do not think that helps.  No, that is on
    19        another point.  I merely said that because if one is
    20        checking whether there has been any significant change over
    21        the last few years, it occurred to me that by the
    22        terminology which Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel have used,
    23        "official document", it would be difficult to imagine
    24        anything short of a statute, Act of Parliament which is
    25        less "official" in that general sense than a report of
    26        Inspectors of Companies appointed by the Secretary of State
    27        for Trade.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  I agree.  I have read that with some surprise.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  To some extent -- one is only too ready to be
    32        proved wrong -- it confirms my reaction in surprise that it
    33        should be suggested that an official document has any
    34        status different to any other document.
    35
    36   MR. RAMPTON:  No, it does not appear to have but, my Lord -----
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  As I said, the statement made in it, if all
    39        the Civil Evidence Act provisions can be complied with, may
    40        carry more weight than a statement made in so far as, for
    41        instance, it reported what someone said on oath, it might
    42        carry more weight.
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:  Can I come back to this American document?
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You can in a moment.  I am seeking help for
    47        myself because if you were right that there was any
    48        official status, whatever you want to go on to say about
    49        the American document, I had better know it.
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, can I say something about the American 
    52        document?  It is unclear ---- 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  I think Ms. Steel ought to be allowed to speak
    55        first.  She has been trying-----
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, I want to try to get this straight in my
    58        mind own.
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  Again, my Lord, this is, by way of illustration,

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