Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 54
1 general allegation and that has not been admitted you can
2 seek further information about a specific fact which you
3 have alleged and which has been admitted.
4
5 MS. STEEL: Where -----
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You should really have what you want for all
8 the argument about a report about the Oregon outbreak.
9 Having read that during the mid-day adjournment, I have to
10 say it might establish things on balance of probabilities,
11 but it did not end up as conclusive as I read through what
12 I thought it might with the discussion at the very end.
13
14 If I am prepared to treat Mr. Rummel's statement taken with
15 the allegation you have made as proving on balance of
16 probability that during 1982 at least 47 people from
17 Oregon, Michigan and other States in the United States of
18 America suffered E.coli food poisoning after eating, that
19 is, as a result of eating McDonald's hamburgers, then
20 whatever debate there might have been about the matter, you
21 have got what you set out to prove so far as that is
22 concerned. The same with regard to typhoid, although he
23 goes on to explain why that should be so.
24
25 MS. STEEL: Although the fact is admitted that there was an
26 incident of food poisoning, we should be entitled to
27 cross-examine and to see relevant documents about the issue
28 of the causes as in that pathogenic bacteria were found in
29 the meat and that the grills that were being used to cook
30 burgers were found to have uneven temperatures, because
31 that has implications for the wider pleading of meat being
32 responsible for the majority of cases of food poisoning
33 and, obviously, to the issue of McDonald's saying that
34 their systems are infallible or their attempts to imply
35 that. For example, after Oregon was there a review of
36 cooking procedures; did the temperature get increased; did
37 the grills get changed, were steps taken in the USA (like
38 they say have been taken over here) that suppliers have to
39 tie off the oesophagus to prevent contamination from the
40 gut getting into the meat, and matters such as that.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Could we have a quick two minute break? Can I pass
43 up a document? It is a note I received last night from our
44 expert in the United States on US suppliers, beef
45 suppliers.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: Going through it, not exactly in the order
50 Mr. Rampton went through, there were other applications
51 which he did not mention, just to say under our list
52 Destruction of the Environment on our application on
53 February 3rd, or the list on 3rd February, I checked the
54 transcript of Mr. Gonzalez and he said it was not Guatemala
55 that he saw a map on display, but he thought, he was not
56 sure, that he saw a map in Costa Rica which was showing
57 supply sources.
58
59 So, that application that says "Guatemala map on display"
60 should, in fact, be "Costa Rica". The Plaintiffs have said
