Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 71


     
     1        what I had to say or will have to say relates to paragraphs
     2        (1) to (5).  What I have to say about (6) will not,
     3        I believe, affect any question of discovery because all the
     4        material that might be relevant to that pleading, if it
     5        were in proper form, has already been disclosed and there
     6        has been a good deal of evidence about it.
     7
     8        The same with 12 and 13.  The objection to 12 and 13 is a
     9        joint.  One those two objections go together.  It is very
    10        simple.  That is a matter of argument, not a matter of
    11        discovery.  (15), my belief is that your Lordship has
    12        already ruled on that, so that that should not take very
    13        long.  It does not, in my belief, give rise to any question
    14        of discovery at all.  The other matters which I am not
    15        opposing, of course, might but that depends on how I choose
    16        to deal with them, about which I will say no more at the
    17        moment.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I want to come back to (1) to (5) in a
    20        moment, Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel, that is, the destruction
    21        of the environment suggested amendments.  But you said you
    22        wanted to raise some matters arising out of my ruling.  I
    23        do not want you to argue them now, but can you say which of
    24        those should be dealt with, in your view, before we do the
    25        remainder of the rearing and slaughter and food poisoning
    26        witnesses?  What, if any, other matters of substance are
    27        there which must be decided now?  Just take a moment.
    28        I must leave at half past four for an appointment somewhere
    29        else.
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  While Mr. Morris is thinking, can I hand up an
    32        addition or a continuation of your Lordship lavender
    33        diary?  My Lord, I inform your Lordship that I am now
    34        serving a counter notice in respect of the author of the
    35        Health & Safety Executive report into McDonald's
    36        restaurants requiring the Defendants to call the author of
    37        that report, a Mr. Andrew Foster.
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:  I do not remember what the matters in the rulings
    40        were because, to be honest, I have not had a chance to read
    41        them for about a week.  I did look at them at the time.  I
    42        cannot remember what it was we discussed off the top of my
    43        head.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can I explain?  Let me come back to (1) to
    46        (5) then, because at the moment it looks to me as if we
    47        could spend the morning, or such of it as required, arguing
    48        or discussing the matters we have spoken about so far.
    49
    50        When I hear argument about the amendments which you have 
    51        listed in five paragraphs under Destruction of the 
    52        Environment, it may very well be that I will want you to 
    53        point me to what you say is the reasonable evidence to
    54        support the pleas which you wish to make in the amendment,
    55        or the reasonable grounds which you have for supposing that
    56        there is sufficient evidence to prove the allegations or
    57        that it will become available.  If you look at
    58        Lord Justice Neill's Judgment in the Court of Appeal at
    59        page 12E, and particularly subparagraph (c), you will
    60        recognise the words which I have used.

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