Day 278 - 11 Jul 96 - Page 46
1 was particulars.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am sorry, I think it was particulars.
4
5 MS. STEEL: Yes, unless we served particulars of rainforest case
6 within seven days, that our case on that was going to be
7 struck out and that we had said we did not have any
8 evidence. Obviously, that is a complete load of rubbish.
9 Because if we had said that we do not have any evidence
10 then I am sure Master Grant would have struck out there and
11 then.
12
13 That was the very first hearing that we ever
14 attended. I looked it up last night, I went to my files
15 and looked at what happened at the hearing. That was the
16 very first hearing we ever attended. We did not understand
17 the procedure, we asked for it to be explained and it was
18 not, and we did not know. We were just asking, "Well, how
19 do we how do we do the particulars? How are we supposed to
20 do this?" You know, we didn't not know what we were
21 supposed to be doing.
22
23 It was not about the rainforests and it was not an
24 order that was made for seven days. McDonald's were trying
25 to get the whole of our case struck out. After some
26 argument, we showed Master Grant that, in particular the
27 parts about employment that they were trying to get struck
28 out, they had completely asked the wrong questions about
29 the wrong text and the questions did not make any sense.
30 And he made an order about all the pleadings except the
31 employment stuff that we should serve further particulars
32 in 28 days. And it is not that this particularly matters,
33 but the point is that if McDonald's, if Mr. Rampton in his
34 recounting of what happened on that occasion can get that
35 so wrong when he has actually got an order available to him
36 about what was decided at that hearing, and if anyone wants
37 to look at it I have got it here, then that just shows how
38 unreliable the information is concerning the rest of what
39 he said happened on that day.
40
41 If I just add that the reason that I did not
42 specifically remember what had happened at the hearing of
43 Master Grant on that date was that we have had over, you
44 know, between 25 and 30 pretrial hearings. So, you know, I
45 cannot specifically remember what happens on each day,
46 though I can remember what did not happen.
47
48 Just a minor point, but I do not whether Mr. Rampton
49 is going to make something of it because he seemed to be
50 yesterday. Just about people using other names.
51 Obviously, we have heard that the private investigators
52 were all using other names anyway. But, in particular, in
53 political groups it is not unusual for people who are
54 writing letters to newspapers and so on to use other names,
55 because of concern about the fact that those with vested
56 interests may want to take action to stop them. For
57 example, the Economic League kept a register of political
58 and trade union activists from the which information was
59 available to subscribers to use to vet employees. And that
60 I was well aware of that and I am sure that most people who
