Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 41
1
2 MR. RAMPTON: There is not even the basis of a reasonable or
3 what I might call a sensible speculation that it might be
4 so. There is not even that. What is quite clear on the
5 authority of the Court of Appeal is that a defendant must
6 be in a position to plead something -- he cannot make it up
7 -- and it is not until he is in that position that he is
8 entitled to any discovery. Because what the Court of
9 Appeal did not do was interfere with the long-established
10 rule (nor could it, in fact) that particulars of
11 justification must precede discovery. There is nothing
12 that the Defendants have on which a new plea of
13 justification could properly, without being an abuse of the
14 process, be based in this regard.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you. Yes?
17
18 MR. MORRIS: First of all, the document, the Fact Sheet,
19 specifies Amazonia in the box "50 acres every minute", not
20 just Central America. Secondly, the pleadings specify
21 Central and Latin America which includes Brazil on page 2
22 and further pages which I cannot find at the moment
23 but -----
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but the point being made against you is
26 you were asked to particularise that, you see? You
27 particularised Costa Rica, dates and sources, you
28 particularised Guatemala, dates and resources, and if I put
29 you to it, you would argue: "Well, we have a basis now to
30 add Brazil, 80 tonnes in 1983 and 1984".
31
32 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I ought to let you amend, if an amendment is
35 called for -- I am not suggesting it is -- to allege the 80
36 tonnes in 1983/1984. But you have no basis upon which to
37 allege anything more from Brazil; that is what is put
38 against you. If you have no basis for alleging it, there
39 is no basis for seeking discovery in relation to it.
40
41 MS. STEEL: We have got a basis for alleging more beef than
42 that from Brazil because there were the other transport
43 documents that related to 30 tonnes of Brazilian beef and
44 things like that.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is at the very best a loose end at the
47 moment, is it not?
48
49 MR. MORRIS: We know that McDonald's in Brazil purchased a large
50 amount of beef within Brazil which is similar -----
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where do you know that from?
53
54 MR. MORRIS: Evidence has been given in court and in documents
55 disclosed by McDonald's that they have or they had about
56 five years ago 50 restaurants in Brazil which used
57 Brazilian beef. You may recall the letter from 1982. At
58 that time they had six stores. It said: "In Brazil we
59 only use Brazilian beef" which, of course, it turned out
60 was -- sorry, it said: "The only Brazilian beef we use is
