Day 052 - 21 Nov 94 - Page 12
1 is just that appearing on the same page as F (which is page
2 13 of the draft) is H -- I do not want to take you out of
3 order but I have read the Defendants' skeleton argument --
4 so far as heart disease is concerned -- just put cancer on
5 one side for a moment -- does proposed F1 add anything to
6 H, the meaning pleaded in H?
7
8 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I will answer the question when I have a
9 copy of the document.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Because that does use the word "cause" in
12 relation to heart attacks.
13
14 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, my Lord, it does use that word in relation to
15 heart attacks. That comes from a different, if sensitive,
16 part of leaflet, in fact, is part of the context. I am not
17 quite sure what implication that has, to be quite honest
18 with your Lordship. Whether that should be read as
19 explaining the word "link" which is used in the old F, I do
20 not know. I do not necessarily want to make that
21 submission.
22
23 The submission that I will make is that not only is
24 "linked" capable in this existing pleading of meaning
25 "causes", but has actually been taken to allege or to say
26 "cause" both by your Lordship and by Mr. Justice Drake
27 and, arguably, by Lord Justice Neill in the Court of
28 Appeal. Whether in arriving at that conclusion your
29 Lordship, Mr. Justice Drake and the Court of Appeal had in
30 mind this paragraph, submissions that I have made about the
31 meaning of the leaflet or, indeed, the leaflet itself, of
32 course, I do not know. But the fact is that the court has
33 on different occasions interpreted the pleaded word "linked
34 with cancers of the breast and bowel and heart disease" as
35 meaning "causing cancers of the breast and bowel and heart
36 disease". It may be that the paragraph H which your
37 Lordship has drawn attention to has, as it were, assisted
38 in that perception.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may do. Of course, that relates to food
41 high in sugar and sodium. It does not include the high in
42 fat or saturated fat.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: No. It is because, my Lord, it comes directly
45 from that part of the -----
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It comes from a part lower down the page.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: Paying for the habit which, for its first part,
50 is related to the undefended suggestion that McDonald's
51 food creates craving.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, can you explain what you mean?
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: We have had no evidence from the Defendants about
56 craving.
57
58 MS. STEEL: We argue it is a matter of common sense.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Sorry, I interrupted you.
