Day 008 - 07 Jul 94 - Page 72
1
MISS STEEL: Actually, there are absolutely stacks of
2 scientific reports we are still compiling; we have two
Lever Arch files full of them which we need to hand to the
3 plaintiffs as soon as we finish compiling them.
4 MR. MORRIS: Obviously we are under pressure to say "Well, we
can do it in three days" or something. We feel a week is
5 a reasonable break, because it is not just a question of,
you know, preparing by reading the documents. It is the
6 whole administrative----
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am going to leave you with this thought
and then rise because I do not want a response to it;
8 I want a bit of thought to be given to it; if, in fact,
I decided that it was not realistic to get into nutrition
9 before the end of July, because I thought you did not have
time to prepare, then I want to know what witnesses,
10 including, for instance, finishing Mr. Preston,
Mr. Gregory I see is there -- we could put into weeks four
11 and five.
12 MR. RAMPTON: We will do anything to cooperate to make your
Lordship's life easy, give the defendants -- I do not say
13 "sufficient" -- time to prepare what you would say they
ought to have prepared four years ago. Leaving that
14 rather sly remark on one side, there are two very
important considerations which do not bear upon the
15 defendants' diligence, or the lack of it.
16 The first is this. A large number of my witnesses are not
McDonald's people at all. They are a combination of
17 independent businessmen and distinguished academics.
I have had, or Mrs. Brinley-Codd has had, already a great
18 deal of trouble putting these witnesses where they
presently are. On nutrition, virtually the whole of my
19 evidence is independent outside academics: Professor
Walker, Professor Wheelock, Professor Keen, and
20 Dr. Arnaud, and Dr. Craybury.
21 It is possible that I can find dates for them at different
times after 12th September. What I cannot guarantee is
22 that I get all of them before the case ends, or if I do
I get them in any kind of order. Now that, to be quite
23 blunt about it, would be a grave injustice to us.
24 MR. MORRIS: There is no difference for us though.
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am trying to stop the argument for the
moment. The alternative to what I have just mooted about
26 not starting nutrition before the end of term is to start
it in the 5th week.
27
MR. RAMPTON: I face the same problem. I just do not know if
28 Professor Walker---
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have to do fairness to both parties,
Mr. Rampton. I am not unaware of your problems but I am
30 not unaware of the defendants' either.
