Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 54


     
     1        the main points to which McDonald's were responding which
     2        are contained in large part, though not exclusively, in the
     3        documents which are in Mr. Preston's third and fourth
     4        appendices.
     5
     6        I am not going to read those out.  I do ask your Lordship,
     7        because I know you will, to pay particular attention to the
     8        welter of false allegations that were being made, and very
     9        serious allegations that were being made, by the Defendants
    10        in the months from January to the beginning of March 1994.
    11
    12        I perhaps ought to add this, that if one supposed that
    13        McDonald's was a human being, which it is not, but if one
    14        supposed that it were, and one asks oneself what kind of
    15        material would that person be entitled to put out in
    16        response to these venomous allegations by the Defendants
    17        over a period of months made in the public forum, one would
    18        be bound to say that that person would have been entitled
    19        to express himself in terms directed at the Defendants'
    20        personally, which at any rate matched the venom of what the
    21        Defendants had been saying about McDonald's in those
    22        preceding months, instead of which they do not even name
    23        the Defendants, the attack of the responsive documents is
    24        aimed not at people, primarily, but at the leaflet itself.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is there anything more you want to say about
    27        counterclaim because if not I will go on to damages?
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  Right, my Lord, yes.  I say straight away that
    30        I have actually brought to court copies of the passage from
    31        Broom v Castle, which is cited in the written submission.
    32        Your Lordship will have it, but I thought the Defendants
    33        might not.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If they could be given to Ms. Steel and
    36        Mr. Morris.  I do not need a copy because I have the report
    37        in my room.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  May I say -- this is not directed to your Lordship
    40        -- if they are going to take legal advice about this it is
    41        necessary to read the whole report, not just the bit that I
    42        have extracted.  (Handed to the Defendants) I have
    43        highlighted the passage which I quoted.  Sorry, my Lord.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The matters I wanted to ask about are very
    46        limited.  In paragraph 5 on page 3 -- is that right?
    47
    48   MR. RAMPTON:  I say, that is the question Mr. Atkinson asked me.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. 
    51 
    52   MR. RAMPTON:  I think as a matter of logic that it must be.  At 
    53        any rate in that area of the awards of damages which
    54        reflects vindication rather than compensation.  And it does
    55        seem to us -- or it seems to me, I had better not use the
    56        first person because that would not be justified -- it does
    57        seem to me -- that if the principal function of an awards
    58        of damages, certainly in relation to a company that does
    59        not claim actual loss, is to vindicate its trading
    60        reputation, then if and I am making the law up as I go

Prev Next Index