Day 249 - 14 May 96 - Page 54
1 has become his evidence-in-chief because he brought it in
2 by his statement. I am not saying there are not other
3 factors, but the two balls I am particularly trying to keep
4 my eye on with Mr. Nicholson is the actual events and
5 particularly what he said that you did on 16th October,
6 1989, because that is of obvious potential importance, and
7 any factors which you wish to bring out so that you can
8 rely upon them in support of an argument that McDonald's
9 consented to publication of the leaflet which is now part
10 of your pleading, and I will add a third matter in case you
11 are aiming this at Mr. Nicholson as well as Mr. Preston,
12 although I do not know whether you are or not now, whether
13 anything which you would want to pray in aid in support of
14 an argument of what I will just generally call malicious
15 motivation so far as your counterclaim is concerned.
16
17 MS. STEEL: Right. You said that the -----
18
19 MR. MORRIS: Can I ask a question because we have not had legal
20 advice on that, but Mr. Rampton did say the law is that you
21 cannot plead malice against a corporation.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Cannot?
24
25 MR. MORRIS: Plead malice against a corporation and I am not
26 sure if that is correct.
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Morris, my Lord, is no better at summarising
29 my submissions than I am. It is not what I said.
30 Habitually speaking, if you wish to allege malice against a
31 corporation, if you wish to prove it against a corporation,
32 you can only do that if you plead and prove -- and
33 particularly prove -- that some individual, servant or
34 agent of the corporation who had a hand in the publication
35 of the words complained of was him or herself actuated by
36 malice.
37
38 MS. STEEL: I do not know what situation is, whether .....
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We need not get concerned with that in the
41 middle of the evidence. All I have done is swept that in
42 as a possible factor if you want to question Mr. Nicholson
43 about it. But it is those three areas which I see is the
44 main potential areas.
45
46 MS. STEEL: I mean, that is what I am concentrating on.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would invite you to do -- it is easy
49 just to fall into it without really intending to ask a far
50 reaching question -- is try, if you can, not to ask
51 questions like, "What happened at the October 1988 fayre"?
52
53 MS. STEEL: He has not given it in chief. It is in his
54 statement and .....
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He has given it in chief.
57
58 MS. STEEL: Not verbally.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, he has not, but if there is some -----
