Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 52


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It would not be a higher meaning than the one
     2        which is pleaded?
     3
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  No, I do not believe that it would, no.  If I said
     5        something like that to the jury in closing the case,
     6        because one often expresses the meanings in a variety of
     7        different ways to the jury at the end of the case just to
     8        give them a bit of life, and the judge thought that I had
     9        gone beyond the pleaded meaning, then, of course, he would
    10        say so.  If he thought he was determined that I had he
    11        would make me amend it or else he would not let me say it.
    12
    13        My Lord, I have to say that is how I have read H all along,
    14        but it does not use quite the same stark wording that I
    15        have used.  That is how I see it.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I have written down is if the leaflet
    18        meant that the Plaintiffs purposely sell food which is so
    19        high in sugar and sodium with a view to people developing
    20        an addiction for it and thereby allowing the Plaintiffs to
    21        earn greater profits etc., you would say that is not a
    22        higher meaning than H?
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not ----
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is just a clarification of H, is it?
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord, I would not use the word "purposely"
    29        because I do not think H is meant to mean that and I do not
    30        read the part of the leaflet as saying that.  What I do
    31        suggest it means is recklessly, not purposely.  In other
    32        words, they are so carried away by the desire to make money
    33        that they pay no regard to the obvious consequences of what
    34        they are doing, so far as the health of their customers is
    35        concerned.
    36
    37        It would not in the least surprise me if, at the end of the
    38        argument here -- and it must be made here; it cannot be
    39        made at some later stage -- the Defendants do not tell your
    40        Lordship that that is something like what they say is their
    41        case.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Perhaps I would say now that, as far as I am
    44        concerned, Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris can forget G unless
    45        there is some particular point they want to make on it; but
    46        it would helpful, as I indicated, if they told me what they
    47        say the leaflet would mean along the lines of F and,
    48        I mean, obviously they do not accept it means what is set
    49        out in F in that general area, but also what they say it
    50        means in the general area of H as well. 
    51 
    52   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  My Lord, I would only add I think they must 
    53        do that, in fact, at this stage and they cannot now leave
    54        it until the end of the case.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, because they, I assume, want to -- it is
    57        obvious they will argue that it has a meaning which is
    58        different to F and H and then, obviously, I will have to
    59        consider the meaning they promote and whether they are
    60        right about that.

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