Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 27
1 defendants can expect a vindication of their position in a
reasoned judgment. It is this consideration, coupled with
2 the hope that they may also obtain an injunction, which
has led the plaintiffs to conclude that this action must
3 be pressed to its end.
4 My Lord, the financial disadvantages to the plaintiffs of
this decision are perfectly obvious. The defendants, who
5 (and I say this advisedly because there is material to
support it) in an apparent attempt to manipulate public
6 opinion have repeatedly described themselves as "Unwaged
environmentalists", are of course without the resources to
7 pay either damages or costs if the plaintiffs should win
this action.
8
Indeed, it is for the same reason, rightly, I should
9 mention openly in court, that even thus far the plaintiffs
have expended considerable sums of money in providing the
10 defendants with copies of documents and with the
technology which they wanted in order to try to maintain
11 their defence.
12 My Lord, this is a small sacrifice for the plaintiffs
because they really do not have any choice in the matter
13 at all. When these defendants decided that they would
contest the case, howsoever feeble their grounds for doing
14 so, the plaintiffs were driven to take the action to its
conclusion because, my Lord, the inescapable alternative
15 was that the world at large would say to itself this:
"McDonald's have retired in the face of the defence that
16 these allegations are true, therefore, it must be that the
allegations are true, and that we can now accept them as
17 received wisdom about McDonald's and repeat them ad
infinitum without fear of penalty".
18
My Lord, the other side of the coin is this: If the
19 plaintiffs are right in this case and the allegations made
against them by these defendants are as completely
20 baseless as the plaintiffs contend, then, my Lord, a
reasoned judgment asserting the validity of that
21 proposition and the reasons why it was valid, coupled with
an injunction restraining the repetition of the
22 allegations, can only do the plaintiffs an immense and
lasting service, however much it may cost in money to
23 obtain it.
24 My Lord, at one stage in this case your Lordship observed
in Chambers (but I hope that does not matter) that this
25 action might be seen in one sense simply as public
relation exercise. In one sense, that is entirely right.
26 It is indeed true of most defamation actions because
plaintiffs who are defamed mostly seek vindication not
27 money. My Lord, in this case it is peculiarly apt. What
these plaintiffs seek is, in effect, a declaration by a
28 judge at the High Court in England that the allegations
complained of are false, why they are false and they
29 should not be repeated.
30 My Lord, by that means these plaintiffs hope that once and
for all the media and the public who properly depend upon
