Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 45


     
     1        relates to your pleaded case in relation to that which has
     2        not been given and should, you raise it now.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:  The Costa Rica is, obviously, the documents that
     5        Dr. Gomez Gonzales had seen which was variously described,
     6        well, originally described as about 20 documents.  It may
     7        have gone down over the period of his questioning dating
     8        back to the early 1980s in regard to the exports issue from
     9        Costa Rica, and also to the source of supplies within Costa
    10        Rica.  He certainly referred to correspondence.  I cannot
    11        remember -----
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you have the reference for it?
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  The only reference I have got is it was 16th
    16        December I think.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Day 68 then.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  It was page 27 line 48, but I cannot remember -----
    21
    22   MR. RAMPTON:  It may be that I can cut this short.
    23
    24   MS. STEEL:  I think that is in fact in the transcript reference
    25        for the screen as opposed to the printed copy.
    26
    27   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, it may be I can cut this short.  One of
    28        the reasons why Mr. Hill has not been in court all that
    29        much recently is that, amongst other places, he has been to
    30        Costa Rica.  He went there with Mr. David Widenfelt on
    31        behalf of the American Plaintiff.  They searched the
    32        documents of the McDonald's people in Costa Rica.  They
    33        found one document which might (and I say might) be
    34        relevant, and that is to say a specification from 1992
    35        guaranteeing that the beef did not come from any
    36        rainforest.  It is a side version, I think, of the
    37        corporate policy on rainforest with which we are all
    38        familiar, but since it dates from 1992 it may not have much
    39        value.  There was nothing else which bore upon the source
    40        of the beef used for McDonald's in Costa Rica at any time
    41        and certainly not for any of the years pleaded in the
    42        Defence.
    43
    44        Coope Montecillos, which is no longer a supplier of
    45        McDonald's in Costa Rica, were not willing to provide
    46        assistance or facilities for inspection of their records.
    47        Whether after he has finished his evidence, or perhaps
    48        during his evidence, Dr. Gomez Gonzalez is able to offer
    49        any further help I cannot possibly tell.  I will tell your
    50        Lordship this, because Mrs. Brinley-Codd said that I should 
    51        and I agree with her.  She and I spoke to his head of 
    52        department, that is Dr. Gomez Gonzalez's head of 
    53        department, to explain that he must not speak to anybody
    54        within the corporation or outside it about his evidence.
    55        What we did do was to highlight all the relevant parts of
    56        his transcript where a question had arisen as to documents
    57        and send them to his head of department for further
    58        research.  Unfortunately, what happened, and this may
    59        lighten a grey afternoon, was that UPS who sent the parcel
    60        addressing it to the right person, but put on it "Diamond

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