Day 103 - 14 Mar 95 - Page 02
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2 MR. MORRIS: I wanted to serve, which I have done on
3 Mrs. Brinley-Codd, some documents relevant to Richard
4 North's evidence, basically hygiene documents. If they
5 could go behind the other Richard North ones in our ------
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7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The most recent bundle?
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9 MR. MORRIS: The most recent bundle.
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11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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13 MR. MORRIS: The other thing is I was speaking to our witness
14 Miss Hovey and she has requested I ask for records held at
15 Jarrets but not actually in the possession, power or
16 control of Jarrets, we do not believe. They are her
17 veterinary service records on carcass temperatures. They
18 are actually public documents which she believes will not
19 be released unless there is some kind of subpoena on them.
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21 The company that she was employed by, Evill & Jones, would
22 have the control of those documents in the Jarret
23 slaughterhouse. It is her own file that she made recording
24 carcass temperatures.
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26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Have you issued a subpoena against someone
27 from her firm to bring them as a witness?
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29 MR. MORRIS: I do not know how we would do that. Do we just
30 write to them?
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32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, I would have to look it all up
33 myself.
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35 MR. MORRIS: Is it not possible for the court to order that they
36 be released?
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38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. There may be more but there are three
39 possible routes and you have to look into them. There is
40 the question of discovery by parties to the action. I can
41 sit in court, hear argument and make such orders as I think
42 are appropriate having listened to argument. But that does
43 not help you unless the documents are in the possession,
44 custody or power of a party to the proceedings.
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46 MR. MORRIS: I understand.
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48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The second possible route is to issue a
49 subpoena duces tecum for someone to be summoned as a
50 witness and bring with him or her documents which you say
51 are relevant. So, look that up. There are also
52 provisions, special statutory provisions, whereby you can
53 order someone (and this is the third) who has relevant
54 documents to disclose them or produce copies of them under
55 provisions of the Administration of Justice Act. There is
56 some law on the extent to which the court will do that.
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58 When you are in that situation, of course, it is not just
59 the interests of the parties which are involved because the
60 person concerned may have an interest in whether documents
