Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 53
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2 MR. MORRIS: If that be true, the Plaintiffs have been
3 deliberately concealing vast numbers of press cuttings
4 which they must have in their possession relating to all
5 the pleadings that we have made, some of which were
6 subjects of great public controversy in the country that
7 they took place in. Nobody will convince me in a million
8 years that the McDonald's Corporation does not keep
9 extensive press cutting files of all relevant cuttings
10 about its business. That is all I want to say.
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12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Look, I am not going to embark on yet another
13 application for discovery.
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15 MR. MORRIS: No, I know.
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17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I will say is that, on the face of it,
18 the note that Mr. Rampton has read does support his point.
19 If you want to argue that it is wrong, then you must
20 prepare a legal argument. There are enumerable press
21 cuttings in the papers, most of them put in by you, with a
22 view to being able to pursue a line of enquiry which does
23 seem to me to confirm Mr. Rampton's argument.
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25 So, at the moment, having heard that, I am minded to think
26 that you should disclose them, whether the line of enquiry
27 would serve your purposes or serve McDonald's purposes. If
28 you have a specific reason for not disclosing them, then it
29 must be raised so that I can rule upon it.
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31 Do not, whatever you do, just take the stand, in the light
32 of what has passed in the last few minutes since I offered
33 a view of the matter, that you do not have to disclose.
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35 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, a couple of other things.
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37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I mean, I really cannot see any harm from
38 your point of view. Throughout the case you have taken a
39 high moral ground on these matters and I do not see why you
40 should want to do other than disclose them.
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42 MS. STEEL: It is not that I have any problem with disclosing
43 press cuttings. The problem I see is, as the Plaintiffs
44 keep saying, it is huge amount of work, for what purpose?
45 Really, press cuttings are not going to prove anything. My
46 flat is more or less like a bomb site with the amount of
47 papers from this case and press cuttings over the years and
48 this, that and the other, some in files, some not in
49 files. It is just going to be a horrendous task to try to
50 put them in some kind of order.
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52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Look at the rules again if you are
53 unsure about it. The first thing is that they have to be
54 listed. That has to be done before we come to any question
55 of whether they have then actually got to be produced or
56 shown to the other side, and whether that is necessary for
57 the just disposal of the case or the saving of cost, but
58 they do have to be listed.
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60 MS. STEEL: That is where the problem is. I cannot list them
