Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 12


     
     1        lunch.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You can do that if you want, but I do not
     4        think you are, actually.  I think you are just saying that
     5        more has come out about Brazil and you are putting down the
     6        marker that there must be discovery about anything relevant
     7        to a Brazil issue.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I, personally, think you do not have to
    12        underline that point, on the information I have, but you
    13        are entitled to make it.
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  An overview is that it is relevant that if
    16        McDonald's are exporting from countries that have
    17        rainforests to other countries, whether it is US or
    18        elsewhere, because the same principles apply in terms of
    19        our pleadings and the pressure put within those countries
    20        on the use of cattle ranches in general, and space.
    21
    22        So it is relevant in the case, not to just to prove it may
    23        have come from ex-rainforest land, which it might well have
    24        been done anyway, but I think there are various discrete
    25        areas.  There is the specific consignment, discovery
    26        relating to that consignment which the Plaintiffs now have
    27        a witness on, you know, the amount and when, and the
    28        negotiations they had to get a licence, how long that
    29        licence was maintained for and whether there were any other
    30        consignments the following year or the following years.  So
    31        I think that is a discrete area.
    32
    33        There is the discovery from the Brazil end, whether it is a
    34        map, other documents, what the policy is, what the
    35        restricted areas are and when that started, obviously going
    36        back to 1983 when the consignment came over.
    37
    38        Then there is the matter, as this has now been found that
    39        the events have occurred, on the exports from Brazil to
    40        McDonald's in other countries in general.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is your foundation for saying that?
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  The foundation is that the Plaintiffs have denied
    45        that they have exported from Brazil to McDonald's anywhere
    46        and, by chance, we have discovered they have done.
    47
    48   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord.  I do not understand the Plaintiffs
    49        ever to have said that.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  Dr. Gomez Gonzalez said that. 
    52 
    53   MR. RAMPTON:  What is the foundation for the opposite
    54        suggestion?
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:  The opposite suggestion is that they have exported
    57        from Brazil to the UK.  It just so happens that this is the
    58        country that litigation is taking place in and, by complete
    59        chance, we actually found out from a wrongly disclosed or
    60        mistakenly disclosed document.  Therefore, in my opinion,

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