Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 44


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:  So, should I suspend my submission then on this?
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I think so.  I think what you should do
     7        is look again at what Lord Justice Neill said because he
     8        laid down the test for what you can plead.  Then look at
     9        what evidence or information you have which will enable
    10        you, or so you would argue, to plead anything in relation
    11        to Brazil, applying Lord Justice Neill's test.  Then, in
    12        due course, you can put it in front of me and I will either
    13        give you leave to amend or I will not.  If I give you leave
    14        to amend, it will be in the form you have put forward or
    15        some modified form.  The Plaintiffs may ask for particulars
    16        of it.  If they do, I will consider that.  Then when we
    17        know where we are on the pleadings, you can make any
    18        application you wish for discovery.
    19
    20        I do not think you suffer by not asking Dr. Gomez
    21        Gonzales -- if you want to ask Dr. Gomez Gonzalez about it,
    22        then that is a point in favour of sorting it all out before
    23        he comes into the witness box, but I do not think you do,
    24        quite frankly.  You need to have sorted out what case you
    25        are putting, i.e. what case you wish to plead with regard
    26        to Brazilian beef before Mr. Cesca comes over -- well
    27        before Mr. Cesca comes over.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When you do come back to it, I ask you to
    32        make a note (and remind me in case I forget) to refer me to
    33        those parts of your environmental tab 1 witnesses who would
    34        say even 80 tonnes from a non-rainforest area has its
    35        effect for this reason or that reason, which is a point you
    36        have raised because of what I said on 20th December which
    37        you want to say is not right in the light of what your
    38        potential witnesses would say.
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:  May I just say one point which I thought was
    41        important, but I will not go into depth into it, but just
    42        Dr. Gomez Gonzales did say that, effectively, the policy on
    43        ex-rainforest land within a country such as Brazil, because
    44        obviously we are focusing on, would be not to have an
    45        impact after operations began in that country.  So, in
    46        fact, effectively, when McDonald's started in Brazil and
    47        for a number of years they would have been using land, some
    48        of which may have been destroyed five years previously from
    49        when they started.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Right.  Get your thought in order about 
    52        that.  Remember the fact that you have not got a policy 
    53        against something is not necessarily any evidence that you
    54        have ever done it.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:  Do we want to deal with Costa Rica, Guatemala and
    57        USA supply sources now or do we move on from this
    58        document?
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, if you say there is discovery which

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