Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 61


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
     3
     4   MS. STEEL:   So it may be a bit of moving from one topic to
     5        another.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not worry about that.  You take your own
     8        course.  These are ones which he has not covered?
     9
    10   MS. STEEL:   That is right.  I do not know whether I
    11        should give the transcript references for Mr. Horwitz's
    12        evidence?
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would not have thought that you need refer
    15        Mr. Gardner to the actual transcript itself.  You can put,
    16        if you wish, Mr. Horwitz alleged that, and then ask what
    17        his answer to that is.  If you care to give me the
    18        transcript reference, just say 18th and 19th July, I think
    19        they were, 18th July, page 24, or something, then I will
    20        note it in my notebook so I can find it later.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:   It is 18th July.  It starts on page 50 and then
    23        goes on to page 51.  Mr. Horwitz was saying that, in his
    24        experience, his opinion of Mr. Gardner was that he lacked
    25        objectivity and impartiality that you would normally find
    26        in most professional law offices.  We did actually go into
    27        that part this morning when Mr. Gardner said about
    28        McDonald's not being the only company they had taken
    29        action against, but Mr. Horwitz went on to say that he
    30        based that on was that one of the things was that he
    31        always used the threat of publicity as the real basis for
    32        trying to force some sort of settlement on McDonald's;
    33        that that threat of publicity was always first and
    34        foremost, and even on occasions when he indicated he would
    35        not be going to the press, the press was notified and
    36        statements were given to them which required a response by
    37        McDonald's.   Is there something you want to say in
    38        response to that?
    39        A.  Yes.  It is untrue and without any basis.  In fact,
    40        I assume it served Mr. Horwitz well to make such
    41        allegation.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you keep your voice?
    44        A.  I am sorry, I am trying to be somewhat polite about my
    45        response to Mr. Horwitz on that particular point.  There
    46        is a difference between differing on the law and differing
    47        on my word, and that is what Mr. Horwitz has challenged.
    48        Two points:  As a general rule I would not make any
    49        promise whatsoever with respect to press, because if press
    50        contacted me, we were a public office and the press had a 
    51        right of access to our office and had a right to know what 
    52        we were doing if it was a public matter, equal to any 
    53        consumer, any competitor or to the company itself.  We
    54        were an equal access office for matters of contact with
    55        whatever member of the public.  Therefore, it was very
    56        rare that I would make any commitment whatsoever what we
    57        would do with respect to press contacts, whether the
    58        Attorney General chose to initiate them or whether I was
    59        called by a reporter.
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