Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 20
1 finished on Brazil. It would help if I could get my
2 thoughts together on Costa Rica before we launch into it.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will make a note you have finished on
5 Brazil except for soya as a separate point. We will be
6 better off at the end of the day if we broke off until 2
7 o'clock but we tried to keep going for the full time at the
8 end of the day.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: I will do my best.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Two o'clock.
13
14 (Luncheon Adjournment)
15
16 MR. MORRIS: Costa Rica. I do not know whether people want to
17 get their map out. It might help.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, just hold on a minute. (Pause) Yes,
20 carry on.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: We start off with the admission on day one in
23 court from Mr. Rampton, page 150 of his opening speech,
24 "Thus, in Costa Rica when the first McDonald's restaurant
25 was opened in 1970 some of the land on which the beef was
26 raised had been rainforest up to the 1960s."
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord that is not an admission. What one
29 says in opening, and Mr. Morris has made several such
30 observations in the course of the last few days, that is
31 not an admission; what one says in opening foreshadows what
32 the evidence will be. If at the end of the day the
33 evidence shows a different picture, whether more or less
34 favourable, that is what the judge decides the case on.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: Well, I think the evidence has become less
37 favourable.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is a different matter.
40
41 MR. MORRIS: We start off with that as our base. If we look in
42 the statement, for example, of David Rose -- the admission
43 by Edie Bensilum to him, in the fourth paragraph of his
44 statement -- she agreed, that is Edie Bensilum, that in the
45 '50s the farms that were supplying McDonald's Costa Rica
46 through Montecillos had been rainforest. She said:
47 "I think the world would admit that before that time..."
48 It might be 'admit' or 'accept'. I have a hole punched
49 through it. "... before that time it was rainforest. We
50 have to accept that. All we can do is to ensure that
51 deforestation", 'deforestation' is in brackets, "does not
52 continue on our behalf."
53
54 Then in her statement, as we have heard, she says, "Most of
55 the farms supplying McDonald's Costa Rica were..." -----
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Hold on a minute. Why are you referring to
58 her statement? (Pause) She did not give evidence.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: No, but she signed it and she is an official of
