Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 80


     
     1        you can have any discussion you want with Mr. North
     2        concerning Preston or pesticide residues.  Is there any
     3        reserve about that, Mr. Rampton?
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  No.  There may be an extent to which the
     6        Defendants see a discussion about Preston as an
     7        opportunity, perhaps, to reflect upon some of the evidence
     8        that has been given this afternoon in cross-examination;
     9        that I suppose is inevitable.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The only other matter is the matter which
    12        I raised which was the question of the documentation, but
    13        that seemed to go by.   I think Preston and the pesticide
    14        residues.
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What you must do with regard to Preston is
    19        decide what matters which appear in the Preston report
    20        really as assertions of fact that Mr. North might want to
    21        rely on and his conclusions from them which should really
    22        go into a further report, which can also deal with
    23        pesticide residues as well.  If they are done separately
    24        I have no objection to that, but it is better to do it in
    25        one go.
    26
    27        I do not want to get back into the debate.  What you have
    28        to concentrate on is what are the facts in relation to
    29        Preston which you say help you, and not get led down the
    30        road of saying that PHLS report, expressing a view of a
    31        certain kind, accounts for something in its own right,
    32        because once you go on to that you have stepped off the
    33        pitch.  You take advice on it at some stage.
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  Can we emphasise that we have put a Civil Evidence
    36        Act notice on the report.  There has been no counter
    37        notice.  We had pleaded our -----
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You are going back over the same ground.
    40        I begin to regret ever mentioning the PHLS report.
    41        I cannot say the same thing time and time again.
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, the way round this problem that
    44        I suggested and which may avoid the Defendants continuing
    45        the misconception of the effect of a Civil Evidence Act
    46        notice, and also any difficulty there may be about
    47        discussing evidence given today with the Defendants, the
    48        way I suggested to Mr. North that he might care to do it,
    49        is for him to look at the report, focus on any part of it,
    50        assume on a hypothetical basis that the facts therein 
    51        stated were true; ask himself whether those or any of those 
    52        facts give rise to any general implications about 
    53        McDonald's procedures or methods from a food safety point
    54        of view, and make his comments on that.  There one will
    55        have all in one go Mr. North's views and a ready-made
    56        pleading for the Defendants.  I am not suggesting they put
    57        it in as a defence.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You are not required to put in a formal
    60        pleading.  What the Plaintiffs then have is notice of the

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