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GAZETTE
A
PRIL
1990
the person who, for example,
devised the scale on the
thermometer. This consideration
goes to weight rather than
admissibility. In any event it
certainly has nothing to do with
the hearsay rule . . . "
The Court of Appeal adopted
that helpful explanation of real
evidence and considered that the
recorder was right to conclude that
the computer printouts from the
machine were real evidence.
Taylor LJ stated that the
computer printouts did not depend
for their content on anything that
had passed through the human
mind. All that had happened was
that when somebody in one of the
hotel rooms lifted the receiver from
the telephone and pressed certain
buttons, the machine made a
record of what was done and
printed it out. Their Lordships
considered that they were justified
in applying the principle set out in
Cross on Evidence
(5th edition,
1979, page 47) and adopted in
Castle
-v- Cross
that, if the
instruments were of a kind as to
which it was common knowledge
that they were more often than not
in working order, in the absence of
evidence to the contrary the courts
will "presume that [mechanical
instruments] were in working order
at the material time".
The present case went further
because of the positive evidence of
the manager that the machine had
been working properly. The
recorder had been right to admit
this evidence.
•
L&/ING
to
theEnd
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