Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 34


     
     1        A.  I do not find any difficulty with this paper at all, my
     2        Lord.  It seems to me it that it only indicates that people
     3        have been talking about it, doing it and then formed
     4        themselves together to have a quite positive and very
     5        specific declaration of intent in 1992.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let us break off there and resume at
     8        2 o'clock.
     9
    10                         (Luncheon adjournment)
    11                                                     2.00 p.m.
    12
    13   MS. STEEL:  I just wanted to ask something about the figures
    14        from Mr. Thompson.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL:  And about getting some kind of a statement from him,
    19        maybe a Civil Evidence Act statement, and then if we need
    20        to take it any further we can raise it then.
    21
    22   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord.  I resist that.  I am not going to
    23        stimulate McDonald's to take the trouble to do that.  An
    24        expert like Mr. Mallinson is quite entitled to rely on
    25        information supplied to him by other people.  I do not
    26        believe myself that the issue to which Mr. Thompson's
    27        evidence might be directed has any or any significant
    28        significance in the case for it to be necessary for us to
    29        get everything from Mr. Thompson.  Mr. Thompson is in
    30        Scotland.  If the Defendants want to subpoena him, they can
    31        try to do so.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have to say I am a bit concerned about that
    34        because it is a factual basis of this expert evidence.  If
    35        there is an issue about areas of forests and so on, and if
    36        the Defendants say (which they have not yet said), what
    37        Ms. Steel said was Civil Evidence Act Notice in the first
    38        place so that it can be looked at, where do I go from
    39        there?
    40
    41   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, perhaps nowhere.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  In other words, you do not have any evidence
    44        on this?
    45
    46   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord, but, to be quite honest, I am not
    47        sure at the moment that I mind very greatly whether I do or
    48        whether I do not, because the fact is, if we are right,
    49        that the amount of sustainable forest which might be
    50        required to provide McDonald's annual requirements, whether 
    51        in the United States or in Europe, if we are right about 
    52        the meaning of the leaflet, it really has nothing whatever 
    53        to do with the case whatever.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is for you to take your stand.  I am not
    56        going to even approach suggesting how you conduct your own
    57        case, Mr. Rampton.  As long as you aware, as you obviously
    58        are, at the end of the day if the Defendants say: "Well, we
    59        do not accept the figures which were the foundation for
    60        this calculation", I will just have to say, well, there we

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