Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 28
1 charges under the same part of the leaflet.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: Indeed so. I mean, under employment, for
4 example.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Under nutrition, one has the risk involved
7 in the food they are putting out and a deception.
8
9 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So they might be general charges. I
12 suppose it might be arguable that section 5 might come in
13 there, might it, although it is difficult to see how it
14 might in the actual context of the case.
15
16 MR. RAMPTON: I find it in my own mind very difficult to
17 separate the two, as your Honour did in the ruling on that
18 meaning. If the food is that dangerous, then perforce
19 McDonald's are bound to know it.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. If you think I have -- I will not beat
22 around the bush -- if you think I have given advice to the
23 defendants which is bad in law at any point, I would be
24 very grateful if you said so. I appreciate you are
25 McDonald's advocate, but one way or another one has to get
26 to the right result.
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: I hope what I have just said now in relation to
29 the leaflet and in relation to the rainforests specifically
30 is perfectly fair. Obviously in employment there are a
31 number of different allegations in the leaflet. If one
32 came to the conclusion that the most serious of those
33 allegations was, for example - I am not making an
34 advocate's case now at all - for example, that anybody who
35 sought to join a trade union was immediately sacked, and
36 that was not proved, then the fact that by comparison with
37 other jobs the wages might be thought low, if that were so,
38 that would not save the defendants.
39 The other way round, it might do. It would be a matter for
40 your Lordship at the end to weigh the gravity of the
41 different charges.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have to do a balancing exercise.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, indeed.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think it actually alters the way
48 Mr. Morris need address me at the end of the day, or has
49 been addressing me. I am grateful.
50
51 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, all I would say then is that I am not
52 keen to sort of jump up when I think maybe the law is not
53 quite as I see it in the exchange between your Lordship and
54 Mr. Morris.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I have in mind is if I may say something
57 which sets them off on a course which may be to their
58 disadvantage due to an error of mine in the first place.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: If I can have a sort of general permission to
