Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 42


     
     1   MR. RAMPTON:  Paragraph 12, sub-paragraph 3, where we rely on
     2        the terms of various documents.  There are two documents,
     3        which I will come back to when I get to the counterclaim
     4        bit, which are (to use the terms which counsel used to use
     5        30 years ago) absolutely redolent of malice.  They are the
     6        McLibel Support Campaign document, which is to be found at
     7        tab 65 of pink 1A, and that is October 1990; and, in
     8        particular -- and I emphasise this because it is an
     9        absolutely dreadful document; I will not dignify it by
    10        reading it out in court -- the McLibel Support Campaign
    11        document of February 1991.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What was the date of the first one: October
    14        1990?
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  October 1990.  This is very relevant to the
    17        counterclaim, when one gets to the question about the
    18        solicitors' letter; and I will come back to it then.
    19        February 1991, which is tab 86 of pink 1A, which was issued
    20        at a time when the only two remaining Defendants were
    21        Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris, which uses terms like
    22        "McDestroyers", "McCancer", "misleads the public about the
    23        nutritional content of their food", "McSlavedrivers",
    24        "McLiars", "to answer for their crimes", "McDirty", "No,
    25        they are guilty".
    26
    27        The value of those documents, quite apart from the fact
    28        that they provide a defence to the counterclaim, the value
    29        of those documents is that they come so early on in the
    30        course of these proceedings.  They illuminate the
    31        Defendants' state of mind at a time which is very close to
    32        the time when the writ was first issued.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Unless you have anything more to say in
    35        relation to malice, we will adjourn now, and I will resume
    36        at two o'clock with that which I have to ask in relation to
    37        counterclaim and damages.
    38
    39                      (Luncheon Adjournment)
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  There is one matter on malice
    42        I remembered over the adjournment.  I am still rather
    43        anxious about the way murder comes in every now and again,
    44        still, because part of malice sets off really dealing
    45        with  -----
    46
    47   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, my Lord, I quite accept that.  That bit was
    48        written, of course, before the exchange that your Lordship
    49        and I had the other day.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes. 
    52 
    53   MR. RAMPTON:  I apologise that I have not had time to change it.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  It does not change the underlying principle.  What
    58        it means, in all probability, is that malice has not got a
    59        lot to do with the main claim, except in so far as it
    60        impinges on damages (which to some considerable extent it

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