Day 274 - 04 Jul 96 - Page 08


     
     1        And, for instance, I will express the hope that you feel
     2        able to agree the tables of nutritional content in the
     3        McDonald's documents, and that Mr. Rampton, on behalf of
     4        his clients, feels able to admit the table which Professor
     5        Crawford produced behind his third statement.  You will
     6        remember the one.  It had a McDonald's beef meal, a
     7        McDonald's chicken meal, a homemade beef meal and a
     8        homemade chicken meal.  But I am not going to start
     9        deciding now whether they are admissible.  That is not my
    10        function.  Everyone must do their best to agree as many
    11        documents as possible, and the best way of avoiding dispute
    12        is to produce a list for agreement, as in fact Barlow Lyde
    13        & Gilbert did in March.
    14
    15   MS. STEEL:  Yes.  If we, for example, the McDonald's facts with
    16        the charts in the back about the nutritional content, if we
    17        agreed that document being admissible, that does not mean
    18        that we are agreeing to say the statements in it saying
    19        McDonald's food is nutritious, does it?
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  What you want to do is just say, and
    22        what I hope we can do, if it has not been done in writing,
    23        is deal with large swathes of that list attached to the
    24        18th March 1996 letter verbally in court on Monday morning.
    25
    26        I do not think it is anticipated, it is expected that you
    27        will agree a statement that McDonald's food is nutritious.
    28        But what is important is that such and such an item has --
    29        that sodium has been reduced across the board or across the
    30        menu, or whatever the phrase is.  But it is important that
    31        you say, if this is your frame of mind, we will agree the
    32        nutritional tables in it, the figures in the tables.  I am
    33        perfectly prepared to do it all in one go before either
    34        side agrees the other side's figures insofar as they
    35        compete, say "well, I will agree this if you will agree
    36        that".  It is not tit for tat.  It is just sense.
    37
    38        As you probably gathered, I have given some thought to what
    39        I was going to say this morning.  It has all been said
    40        advisedly.  I would rather not say anything more now and I
    41        hope when you leave court today you can take away a
    42        transcript of what has been said in court up to this moment
    43        to consider.
    44
    45        If anyone wants to say anything shortly about what I have
    46        said, certainly do so now.  My main purpose is to say what
    47        is on my mind before getting on with Miss Laporte's
    48        evidence so a transcript can be made while she is giving
    49        her evidence.
    50
    51   MR. MORRIS:  The only thing that concerns me is our ability or
    52        lack of it to do an equivalent list to identify which
    53        documents the plaintiffs have missed out on their list that
    54        have been treated as relevant in this case, and that I
    55        would ask the court to consider after Monday if we are
    56        unable to do an equivalent list in the time available,
    57        which is certain from -- just physically impossible, that
    58        when the actual evidence finishes....  You said you are
    59        unwilling to hear evidence at the end of the calender
    60        month.

Prev Next Index