Day 292 - 01 Nov 96 - Page 26


     
     1        statement of claim about the environment/index.html">litter.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There is not only not one in the Statement of
     4        Claim, there is not one in the defence or further and
     5        better particulars.
     6
     7   MR. RAMPTON:   I raise it simply because Mr. Morris was making
     8        one of his usual jibes about McDonald's having sued the
     9        Defendants over something which in fact is not the case.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   No, you have not raised it.  One question I
    12        want to ask at some stage is whether there is not a
    13        defamatory meaning, and then you may help me, if there is,
    14        where it goes ----
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  Well, McDonald's ----
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just listen.  To this effect, that the
    19        Plaintiffs are culpably responsible for, to blame for tons
    20        of environment/index.html">litter consisting of their waste paper packaging
    21        materials littering the cities of developed countries.  If
    22        there is such a meaning, whether it is implicit in meaning
    23        B, which I have in the abstract, or whether, even if it is
    24        not, I can take it into account if it has any part in the
    25        case anyway.
    26
    27   MR. RAMPTON:   As it happens, there is quite a lot of law in the
    28        Polly Peck case and other cases, as to the extent to which
    29        the plaintiff is entitled to select the ground on which he
    30        fights.  It is perfectly true there has been some evidence
    31        about environment/index.html">litter, not as much, thank heavens, as there has been
    32        on other topics, but the fact is that if the allegation
    33        about environment/index.html">litter is distinct and severable from the allegation
    34        about destruction of trees, which I would say it certainly
    35        was, and if the fact is, as it is, that the Plaintiffs have
    36        chosen not to complain about the environment/index.html">litter allegation, however
    37        defamatory it might be, then, to be quite honest, your
    38        Lordship is probably not concerned with the issue at all.
    39
    40        All that your Lordship might say at the end of it is,
    41        "well, it is a bit peculiar that the Plaintiffs are not
    42        very upset or angry about the allegation of environment/index.html">litter", if
    43        that is the way your Lordship's mind should run.  What is
    44        not probably a sensible use of court time at this stage of
    45        the case is to spend hours and hours talking about an issue
    46        which is not really in the case at all, if we are right.
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:   It is in the case so far as we are concerned.
    49        Also, that it was accepted effectively as part of our
    50        pleadings through the statements of witnesses on the
    51        subject, and it is in the fact sheet and it is one of the
    52        contributions to damage to the environment because the
    53        urban environment is part of that, and it is also pray in
    54        aid in terms of deceptiveness on the recycling issue.
    55        Anyway....
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have no trouble about the recycling.
    58
    59   MR. MORRIS:   One of the reasons there is so much environment/index.html">litter is
    60        because of the irresponsibility of companies in general,

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