Day 258 - 07 Jun 96 - Page 33
1 Mr. Fairgrieve how easy it is to replicate what happened
2 before, whether the faxes he had and threw away can be
3 reproduced.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me just ask Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris
6 what, if anything, they want to say about this so far as
7 formal discovery is concerned.
8
9 MS. STEEL: Well, I would like to say that as far I can see it
10 is not a matter of discovery. If the Plaintiffs produce a
11 document with calculations on, with figures on, which they
12 want to rely on, it is actually their obligation to give
13 over the basic material from which those calculations were
14 made. We had this on a previous occasion when Mr. Wheelock
15 did charts about the number of calories and fat, and things
16 like that, in the food. The Plaintiffs had to provide the
17 background information from which those calculations were
18 made, and the same when our witnesses wanted to make
19 calculations. So, as far as I can see, that is what the
20 situation is.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not exist any longer unless
23 Mr. Fairgrieve has been untrue. And there is a difference
24 here in that it was not really a question of discovery
25 here, it was a question of mine, and it came from me
26 originally, and not either from you or Mr. Morris or
27 Mr. Rampton, as to whether he could transfer the
28 percentages into numbers of people.
29
30 MS. STEEL: No. The thing is, I do not think it is a matter of
31 discovery. I think it is a matter of, if the Plaintiffs
32 make calculations they have an obligation to give the basic
33 figures from which they made those calculation so that they
34 can be independently checked.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But it is either discoverable or not, I cannot
37 force them to give the figures. If they do not at the end
38 of the day, you can say ignore all these figures because we
39 have not had a chance to check them.
40
41 MS. STEEL: We can, but the point is that it is their
42 obligation to do so. Mr. Fairgrieve has actually said it
43 would be quite easy to get the figures again. It is my
44 understanding that these are all on a database. The whole
45 point of a database is that you are able to print out
46 various categories of information, and the ones I think
47 will be particularly useful is that of the 60,000 people
48 who were surveyed how many people said that they ate out,
49 and how many never ate out, how many people ate at
50 McDonald's and how often they ate at McDonald's and, as
51 I understand it, Mr. Fairgrieve said they would be willing
52 to do it, and I do not really see the problem.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know, but I do not think I can order them
55 to do it. I do not think the mere fact that they produced
56 an end calculation means that I can order them to produce
57 what has followed in between. If they choose not to the
58 sanction may be that the end figure I treat as unreliable
59 because you have not had an opportunity to countercheck
60 it. What I will say is that on the basis, as I understand
