Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 58


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Then it is a legitimate allegation, whether
     2        or not it can be supported at the end of the day is another
     3        matter, and they are entitled to discovery.  What you say
     4        is, "Well, no, because I may admit it and then there should
     5        not be any discovery"?
     6
     7   MR. RAMPTON:  That is right.  If that is all it is, under-cooked
     8        chicken, salmonella found, of course the legitimate
     9        inference can be made about that.  How far it goes will be
    10        a matter for your Lordship at the end of the case, but
    11        leaving that on one side.  What I would be not be disposed
    12        to admit, for example, is a pleading saying: "This shows
    13        that you are generally reckless of your customers' health
    14        and that this child would have been poisoned if she had
    15        eaten chicken", because that is not what the article says.
    16
    17        If they rely simply on the literal meaning of the article,
    18        then I can consider whether I should admit.  If I do admit
    19        it there will be no discovery.  I shall want at some stage
    20        to address your Lordship on the legal effect of admissions,
    21        because it is something that obviously the Defendants,
    22        through no fault of their own, have plainly not understood.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I might need some help on that myself.
    25
    26   MR. RAMPTON:  The second half of that blue file is about that.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think you had better draft something on
    29        that, Mr. Morris.  It is not that difficult, quite frankly.
    30
    31   MR. MORRIS:  An amendment to the pleading?
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, a paragraph to be inserted.  It can go
    34        into tab 5 and then we can find out whether there is any
    35        challenge and, if so, what.  Bear in mind the argument we
    36        have had today.  Whatever argument there is about whether
    37        we have had something in it which might have given rise to
    38        food poisoning, the allegation or the criticism that which
    39        might be defamatory of McDonald's is really not cooking the
    40        chicken properly.
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So get that in your proposed amendment.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  To be honest, I do not want to raise the whole
    47        thing, but I am increasingly of the opinion it would be
    48        helpful if we re-pleaded our case.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may be, but what I suggest is sometime 
    51        when we have time we will come back to that.  You may be 
    52        able to do something in a fairly comprehensive way.  In 
    53        other words, not every detail but your headline allegations
    54        as it were.
    55
    56   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, is there anything more on salmonella
    57        because there is something I ought to say with regard to
    58        the time.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.

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