Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 23


     
     1        by so doing, by putting out a press release without saying
     2        that the other companies had also agreed to this
     3        initiative, and without admitting they only came to the
     4        agreement after being contacted by our offices, they were
     5        trying to mislead the public into believing McDonald's to
     6        be a leader in this regard rather than a follower.
     7
     8   Q.   Turning back to the letter.
     9        A.  July 21st?
    10
    11   Q.   Yes.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you actually have the Associated Press
    14        report or a copy of it?
    15        A.  My Lord, I believe I handed it to Ms. Steel this
    16        morning.  I did have it earlier; I do not have it on me.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not asking you to look at it now, but
    19        if you have a copy of it, hand it to Mrs. Brinley-Codd.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:   Right.  If we get copies made or something?
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  It is plainly a disclosed document.  We have
    26        never been able to find it.  That is why we have not had
    27        it.
    28
    29   MS. STEEL:   We will get copies made at lunch time.
    30
    31   THE WITNESS:  I believe, your Lordship, this is one of the
    32        documents I received either Thursday or Friday.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not concern yourself with that at the
    35        moment.  You may be asked more about it.
    36
    37   MR. RAMPTON:  I notice that Mr. Gardner mentioned one of the
    38        documents; if there are other relevant documents in the
    39        hands of the defendants, we would ask for them.
    40
    41   MS. STEEL:   We were given another press cutting which was
    42        already in our Defendants' trial bundles anyway.
    43        (To the witness):  Just looking at this letter from the
    44        solicitors, if you go on to the second page, McDonald's
    45        are claiming that they have taken the lead in distributing
    46        brochures and generally trying to give an impression that
    47        such information was already available.  Do you think that
    48        is true?
    49        A.  True that it was already available?  No.  As I said
    50        earlier, although a consumer who somehow became aware that 
    51        these documents were in some file cabinet at company 
    52        headquarters might be able to get a copy, they were not 
    53        otherwise available.  Whether they had been planning this
    54        for some time, I do not believe is true because of their
    55        repeated refusal to agree to do this.  All we were asking
    56        them for was an agreement that they would distribute these
    57        brochures nationwide.  We were not asking for penalties.
    58        We were not asking that they pay any form of sanction or
    59        that they enter into any form of injunction, which would
    60        have been a standard way of resolving a case with an

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