Day 307 - 27 Nov 96 - Page 58


     
     1        and a half years wherein McDonald's have been defending
     2        themselves, well, in fact, they have been prosecuting us.
     3        But, in effect, they have been defending themselves because
     4        they have chosen to.  Therefore, that removes what little
     5        argument they had that before trial they might have needed
     6        to put out some document, which we say has absolutely no
     7        weight whatsoever.  But, in any case, they are still
     8        circulating this document and we have complained about it
     9        as a particular.....
    10
    11        To save time, the first day of our closing speeches,
    12        I actually spent some substantial time going through how on
    13        each issue in the fact sheet and in the case we were
    14        relying on, and had been relying on and had been aware of,
    15        material emanating from authoritative sources, including
    16        the Plaintiffs themselves, so that there is absolutely no
    17        way that those matters could be described as lies because
    18        -- well, I just demonstrated that none of the material,
    19        the issues in this case, none of our points we are
    20        defending could possibly be described as lies.  I mean,
    21        they may at the end of day be shown to be true or untrue --
    22        sorry, not true or untrue, but proven or not proven.  But
    23        McDonald's, as we have said, has to prove positively that
    24        they are untrue and that we knew they were untrue.  And
    25        that is completely impossible, as I demonstrated.  If I can
    26        just refer you to that first day -----
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have a good note of that and I have the
    29        transcript of it now, anyway.
    30
    31   MR. MORRIS:   That is good.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I remember you referring to your witnesses
    34        and their status, and so on.
    35
    36   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, and McDonald's own evidence and  -----
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I have all of that well in mind.
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.  That applies to not just to the words in the
    41        fact sheet, but also to the words in the press release
    42        specifically where it says what they considered to be lies,
    43        what McDonald's considers to be lies on page 2 of the press
    44        release, that McDonald's has to show how those points have
    45        been positively proven by them to be untrue and they have
    46        positively got evidence that we knew they were untrue; for
    47        example, damaging the ozone layer, or whatever.  Do not
    48        forget that we, effectively -- well, it is not enough again
    49        that we may not have proven every word in our pleadings, in
    50        our particulars, because, for example, McDonald's would 
    51        have had to have proven, say, for example, on "destroys 
    52        rainforests", they would have had to have proven the 
    53        sources of their supplies in all countries where they get,
    54        which have rainforests, they would have had to have proven
    55        the sources of their supplies and shown that they were not
    56        on ex-rainforest land, not just in Central America and
    57        South America but Malaysia and other countries as well or,
    58        indeed, Australia or anywhere else that has rainforests.
    59        Of course, that was not done in the case, so that cannot be
    60        proven to be a lie.

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