Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 40
1 does not actually state areas.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it does go on on page 14. It does not
4 state areas. It cannot, is the reason, of course, and it
5 is a case which turns around in a great big circle because
6 a case which is not a case will never become a case. There
7 is a further request on page 14.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me read the answer to that again. Was
10 Miss Bensilum's answer, as alleged by Mr. Rose, country
11 specific?
12
13 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Which country was it?
16
17 MR. RAMPTON: Costa Rica and Guatemala.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Both of them?
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: No, particularly Costa Rica.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you see what ----
24
25 MR. RAMPTON: I am afraid I do not. I cannot remember whether
26 it was both, or whether it was just the one.
27
28 MS. STEEL: I think it was just Costa Rica.
29
30 MR. RAMPTON: Even so, by this time the Defendants' case is
31 confined to Guatemala and Costa Rica.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. But were they to ask leave to plead?
34 This is what I thought they had in mind: Forget exports,
35 apart from the 80 tonnes for a moment. Assume that I agree
36 with the argument you have put last December and reasserted
37 only a few days ago about the fact of someone not knowing
38 of something is no ground for a positive case that it has
39 happened, what we have in the pleading at the moment is a
40 case which amounts to saying, among other things, that
41 McDonald's have supplied their restaurants in Guatemala
42 with beef, some of which they do not assert came from
43 ex-rainforest land, and by the indirect route they seek to
44 specify that could lead to a finding of responsibility or
45 contribution to destruction of the rainforest by indirect
46 pressure. That is how I read their pleading at the
47 moment. What I understood they wanted to do, quite apart
48 from any other course they might take, is plead something
49 similar with regard to Brazil. I gave a view in the autumn
50 of 1993 as to how far I thought that argument would get at
51 the end of the day, but the fact is it is still in the
52 pleadings.
53
54 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I may have something to say about the
55 exercise of your Lordship's discretion about what is
56 necessary for the fair disposal of the case or, indeed, for
57 the saving of costs when it comes to it, if such a pleading
58 were allowed.
59
60 I have in mind this, that if these Defendants were in
