Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 13
1
2 MR. MORRIS: I will not repeat what Helen said.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is crystal clear about the
5 word "linked"?
6
7 MR. MORRIS: On that point, I agree with what Helen has said
8 exactly.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But what Ms. Steel has said is that
11 "linked" -- I do not mean to distort her argument -- could
12 mean as a "cause" or could mean in some other respect. So
13 I am asking, if it might mean different things, what is
14 crystal clear about it?
15
16 MR. MORRIS: It is crystal clear that "linked" is a generic
17 word.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Which may mean any of those things?
20
21 MR. MORRIS: No, not which may mean any of those things, but it
22 is a generic word and there are different types of "link".
23 Any type of link that can be proven would be proving that
24 sentence and that part of the leaflet.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Then, you see, what the Plaintiffs no doubt
27 say is that if "link" itself may mean a variety of things,
28 there may be a variety of links, then it is all the more
29 essential to look at the whole context and see where that
30 takes you, to look at the headline -- and I have heard what
31 Ms. Steel has said about that; I do not mean the front
32 page, I mean the Golden Arches -- and what is written in
33 those, and to look at the cartoon as well, because if
34 "link" is one of those English words which can be used to
35 convey a variety of meanings, then the English reader is
36 going to look, is he not (or she not), elsewhere in the
37 leaflet for some guidance as to what link is meaning here?
38
39 I am in part, as it were, regurgitating Mr. Rampton's
40 argument, but that is only because it would be my own
41 reaction, if you have a word which might have a number of
42 meanings, to look elsewhere closely to get some guidance as
43 to what it means. To some extent that may be a lawyer's
44 approach, but it would also, I suggest, be the ordinary
45 reader's approach, would it not?
46
47 MR. MORRIS: If it is the ordinary person's approach -- which we
48 do not accept that that can mean "causal link" -- we are
49 being put to prove a medical causation. So we are saying
50 that that does not state there is a medical causation.
51
52 MS. STEEL: I think there is a difference between "causal"
53 and "cause and effect", as well. For example, again with
54 the smoking, the witnesses have said that cause and effect
55 has not been shown, but there is thought to be a causal
56 link. Anyway, Dave wants to carry on .....
57
58 MR. MORRIS: I want to focus on the other aspect which is the
59 meals, because I felt that has not had much attention and
60 it has been slipped in by the back door. Mr. Rampton,
