EVIDENCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1939

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EVIDENCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1939 - SECT 1



1.(1) In any civil proceedings where direct oral evidence of a fact would be
admissible, any statement made by a person in a document and tending to
establish that fact shall, on production of the original document, be
admissible as evidence of that fact if the following conditions are satisfied,
that is to say:

(a)if the maker of the statement... has personal knowledge of the matters
dealt with by the statement;...; and

(b)if the maker of the statement is called as a witness in the proceedings:

Provided that the condition that the maker of the statement shall be called as
a witness need not be satisfied if he is dead, or unfit by reason of his
bodily or mental condition to attend as a witness, or if he is beyond the seas
and it is not reasonably practicable to secure his attendance, or if all
reasonable efforts to find him have been made without success.

(2) In any civil proceedings, the court may at any stage of the proceedings,
if having regard to all the circumstances of the case it is satisfied that
undue delay or expense would otherwise be caused, order that such a statement
as is mentioned in sub-section (1) of this section shall be admissible as
evidence, or may, without any such order having been made, admit such a
statement in evidence

(a)notwithstanding that the maker of the statement is available but is not
called as a witness;

(b)notwithstanding that the original document is not produced, if in lieu
thereof there is produced a copy of the original document or of the material
part thereof, certified to be a true copy in such manner as may be specified
in the order or as the court may approve, as the case may be.

(3) Nothing in this section shall render admissible as evidence any statement
made by a person interested at a time when proceedings were pending or
anticipated involving a dispute as to any fact which the statement might tend
to establish.

(4) For the purposes of this section, a statement in a document shall not be
deemed to have been made by a person unless the document or the material part
thereof was written, made or produced by him with his own hand, or was signed
or initialled by him or otherwise recognised by him in writing as one for the
accuracy of which he is responsible.

(5) For the purpose of deciding whether or not a statement is admissible as
evidence by virtue of the foregoing provisions, the court may draw any
reasonable inference from the form or contents of the document in which the
statement is contained, or from any other circumstances, and may, in deciding
whether or not a person is fit to attend as a witness, act on a certificate
purporting to be the certificate of a registered medical practitioner, and
where the proceedings are with a jury, the court may in its discretion reject
the statement notwithstanding that the requirements of this section are
satisfied with respect thereto, if for any reason it appears to it to be
inexpedient in the interests of justice that the statement should be admitted.

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Northern Irish Legislation

EVIDENCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1939 - SECT 1