Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 26


     
     1        the end of the day be a point of detail.  So I want to make
     2        sure I have it right.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:   Well, in Mr. Cesca's statement, witness statement,
     5        he also says that the land from which they got their
     6        supplies when they opened in 1970 had been deforested as
     7        late as the early '60s.
     8
     9   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Let us have a look at that.
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:   I think it is the second to last page of his
    12        statement.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   It is the last page I think you have in
    15        mind.  "This meat comes from ranches in areas which were
    16        deforested in the 1950s and early 1960s."
    17
    18   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not sure he says what kind of forest it
    21        was.  I will make a note of that anyway.
    22
    23   MS. STEEL:   I think he did say in evidence, when he was in the
    24        witness box, that it was rainforest.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes, you think he did.  Right.  I will check
    27        that out unless I am referred to it specifically by
    28        someone.  Carry on then with the points on the documents.
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:   You know, I don't know what tricks McDonald's can
    31        use to get out of all that.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think it is a question of tricks.
    34        It is me making sure I have got the evidence straight in my
    35        mind.
    36
    37   MR. RAMPTON:   I really must say, the extent to which I feel
    38        that I need to resort to tricks in this case is nil.  I am
    39        only interested in relation to rainforest in the single
    40        question:  Have McDonald's been responsible for destroying
    41        rainforests.  And your Lordship will decide what that
    42        means.
    43
    44        As a subsidiary to that question, I am also interested in
    45        the question, which is a question of fact, historical fact;
    46        whatever anybody might have said, whether these regions of
    47        the world were ever in fact rainforest or not.  If they
    48        were not, then this whole edifice falls to the ground.
    49
    50   MR. MORRIS:   We rely on our witness experts ---- 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:    I want you to ---- 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  ---- for guidance on that ----
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just give me the headline.
    57
    58   MR. MORRIS:  ---- who came to court and the plaintiffs failed to
    59        call a single expert on this subject.  I do have one
    60        Civil Evidence Act notice from Professor Janssen.  So if

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