Day 146 - 03 Jul 95 - Page 28
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not mean publication in the sense of an
3 issue on the claim. Let me just look at (B). What does
4 (B) relate to?
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6 MR. ATKINSON: (B) relates to the question of the Defendants'
7 involvement or otherwise in the Greenpeace (London)
8 anti-McDonald's campaign.
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10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may be obvious, but I would like you to
11 spell out why these matters are relevant to an issue on the
12 counterclaim.
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14 MR. ATKINSON: I think in that case we do need to look at some
15 of the pleadings.
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17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. We will take the five-minute break
18 there and you can -- I am doing this for the Defendants'
19 benefit as well as my own -- isolate in ordinary
20 terminology what the issue is which you say there should be
21 discovery about, whether discovery actually reveals any
22 document or not, but the formal process should discovery be
23 gone through.
24
25 (Short Adjournment).
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27 MR. ATKINSON: My Lord, to answer your query, if I could take
28 your Lordship to paragraph 17 of the Defence and
29 Counterclaim which is at the front of the counterclaim
30 file, it is on page 10 of my bundle.
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32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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34 MR. ATKINSON: You see there that that is the meaning
35 paragraph. Then if one goes over the page to F on page 11,
36 one of the meanings that the Defendants alleged that our
37 publications bore was that they have falsely claimed that
38 they are not actively involved when they have for many
39 years taken the leading role in a consistent campaign
40 against McDonald's, including responsibility for organising
41 demonstrations and anti-McDonald's fairs. That was their
42 pleading.
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44 My Lord, that was replied to and if one goes to paragraph
45 7F of the Plaintiffs' Defence to Counterclaim, that is on
46 page 4 of that pleading. I do not have a page number.
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48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, mine is not paginated either, but page 4
49 anyway.
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51 MR. ATKINSON: You see there is an F there which really
52 corresponds to the Plaintiffs' paragraph or meaning where
53 the Plaintiffs are saying they will seek to justify as one
54 of their meanings that the Defendants have made false
55 claims as to their involvement in a persistent campaign
56 against McDonald's by denying that they have for many years
57 taken from McDonald's therein. Then one goes to the
58 particulars supporting the truth of that meaning, and that
59 is on page 9 of that pleading, particulars 7 at the bottom
60 of page 9. I will not read all that out, unless your
