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TMI Blog1971 (6) TMI 39X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , J. - The short question with which I must now deal is whether the answers given by two officers of Barclays Bank Ltd. to the Board of Trade inspectors in the course of an investigation into the affairs of certain companies are admissible in evidence in this action against Barclays Bank Ltd. The material statutory enactments are sections 165 and 167(1), (2) and (5) of the Companies Act, 1948, and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act, 1948, read with sub-section (5), empowers the Board of Trade inspectors to examine the company's bankers on oath. Obviously this includes power to examine an agent of the company's bankers, at any rate if such bankers are a corporation, as they normally will be. The point taken on behalf of Barclays Bank Ltd.-not, I was told, with any attempt to conceal facts, (for I have in fact read the ans ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nk Ltd. enclosed copies of three reports which had been given to the bank by Mr. Cooper. On January 24, 1961, the Board of Trade inspectors wrote a letter in the following terms to Barclays Bank Ltd. : "Thank you for your letter of January 18 enclosing Mr. Cooper's recollections of the meetings referred to. It may be that we shall require to see Mr. Cooper, in which case we shall, of course, get ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... levant, of the powers under section 167. The answers so admissible clearly include answers on oath which the inspectors elicited as a result of the, examination to which section 167(2) refers. In my judgment the answers so admissible in evidence do not include unsworn answers given as a result of what I might term informal questioning by the Board of Trade inspectors. There is, of course, nothing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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