Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 52
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It would not be a higher meaning than the one
2 which is pleaded?
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: No, I do not believe that it would, no. If I said
5 something like that to the jury in closing the case,
6 because one often expresses the meanings in a variety of
7 different ways to the jury at the end of the case just to
8 give them a bit of life, and the judge thought that I had
9 gone beyond the pleaded meaning, then, of course, he would
10 say so. If he thought he was determined that I had he
11 would make me amend it or else he would not let me say it.
12
13 My Lord, I have to say that is how I have read H all along,
14 but it does not use quite the same stark wording that I
15 have used. That is how I see it.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I have written down is if the leaflet
18 meant that the Plaintiffs purposely sell food which is so
19 high in sugar and sodium with a view to people developing
20 an addiction for it and thereby allowing the Plaintiffs to
21 earn greater profits etc., you would say that is not a
22 higher meaning than H?
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: I do not ----
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is just a clarification of H, is it?
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord, I would not use the word "purposely"
29 because I do not think H is meant to mean that and I do not
30 read the part of the leaflet as saying that. What I do
31 suggest it means is recklessly, not purposely. In other
32 words, they are so carried away by the desire to make money
33 that they pay no regard to the obvious consequences of what
34 they are doing, so far as the health of their customers is
35 concerned.
36
37 It would not in the least surprise me if, at the end of the
38 argument here -- and it must be made here; it cannot be
39 made at some later stage -- the Defendants do not tell your
40 Lordship that that is something like what they say is their
41 case.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Perhaps I would say now that, as far as I am
44 concerned, Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris can forget G unless
45 there is some particular point they want to make on it; but
46 it would helpful, as I indicated, if they told me what they
47 say the leaflet would mean along the lines of F and,
48 I mean, obviously they do not accept it means what is set
49 out in F in that general area, but also what they say it
50 means in the general area of H as well.
51
52 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. My Lord, I would only add I think they must
53 do that, in fact, at this stage and they cannot now leave
54 it until the end of the case.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, because they, I assume, want to -- it is
57 obvious they will argue that it has a meaning which is
58 different to F and H and then, obviously, I will have to
59 consider the meaning they promote and whether they are
60 right about that.
