Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 79
1 you understand?
2
3 MS. STEEL: I understand, but we are not happy about getting
4 drawn down this line. As far as we are concerned, it is
5 quite clear that the leaflet does not say: "If you eat a
6 McDonald's meal you will get cancer"; we do not want to
7 get drawn down that line. The leaflet is talking about
8 diet overall. That is what we are addressing. We would
9 have different arguments in relation to this and it would
10 be in terms of meaning.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I want you to do is to be aware of the
13 possibility that that is a meaning which could be put on
14 the leaflet, do you understand? What I do not want you to
15 do is find yourself at a later stage saying: "We propose,
16 we chose not to meet a case that the leaflet means that
17 McDonald's sell meals which cause cancer of the breast and
18 bowel and heart disease in their customers, because we
19 just did not think it could possibly mean that. So,
20 although we could have called a witness who would have
21 supported that, we chose not to". That is partly why I
22 raised it with Professor Crawford because I thought he did
23 have something to say in relation to that; as it happened,
24 he actually said it.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, what did he say? I cannot remember now.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He gave evidence in relation to cause, do
29 you remember? Some relation in relation to cause. We had
30 a bit of a debate about not initial cause but promotion,
31 so we got to a clinical manifestation; cancer, for
32 instance. It is entirely a matter for you, but what I do
33 not want you to do is call Dr. Barnard and not get
34 everything which you might get out of Dr. Barnard in
35 relation to cause as well as link. I mean, one approach
36 to the case is to ask yourself what "link" can mean in the
37 context of this case apart from cause.
38
39 MS. STEEL: Promotion.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Think about it. Do you understand? I am
42 trying to help you.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I want you to think about it.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: I can see how you are trying to be helpful, but,
49 without giving our argument away over this legal matter,
50 it strikes me that the Plaintiffs' case is, what we have
51 to meet is what has existed in the statement of claim for
52 the last four years. On that basis, we have fought the
53 case.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I do not want you to argue it now. At
56 the moment, having heard all the evidence and having read
57 this leaflet a number of times, in the context of the case
58 you may well explain to me what the difference is; but at
59 the moment I am finding it difficult to see a difference
60 between linking a meal with cancer and a meal causing
