Day 307 - 27 Nov 96 - Page 37
1 MR. MORRIS: No-one from McDonald's is interviewed, so it must
2 have been from the press release.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I was asking for is any documents which
5 indicate that what McDonald's said about lies, or anything
6 else for that matter, came into correspondence, was passed
7 on. You have given me those, if you come across any others
8 just let me know about them as well.
9
10 MS. STEEL: In the last page of the defence to counterclaim the
11 particulars -- sorry, it is not the last page, it starts on
12 page 11, and it says "The said words set out were published
13 by the Second Plaintiff in necessary reasonable and
14 legitimate response to or in anticipation of the public
15 attack upon the Plaintiffs made or prompted by the
16 Defendants in the form of the material complained in the
17 files appended hereto".
18
19 We would say, and I think Mr. Morris is going to go into
20 more detail about this, that the press releases and
21 leaflets issued by the Plaintiffs were not a reasonable and
22 legitimate response, that they were way over the top, that
23 they were vicious attacks, as I said this morning, on
24 myself and Mr. Morris, and that the Plaintiffs cannot
25 complain, if they bring a libel case, that the matter is
26 getting publicity. They must know, when they bring a claim
27 for libel, that that is going to attract media attention
28 and it cannot be the case that everybody who brings a libel
29 case against somebody, and thereby invites media attention
30 to that issue, therefore, has a legitimate reason to go out
31 and completely try and discredit the character of the
32 defendant. That just cannot be the case.
33
34 Anyway, Mr. Morris was going to go into that in more
35 detail.
36
37 At the bottom of that page, on page 3, McDonald's say, "In
38 the premises the Second Plaintiff published the words set
39 out...", and so on,"pursuant to a moral or social duty
40 and/or legitimate interest to protect the Plaintiffs'
41 respected reputation from public attack and in each case
42 the publishers were under a moral and social duty and/or
43 had a legitimate interest to receive the same by way of
44 response to or reasonable anticipation of the said public
45 attack".
46
47 Now, this was started on page 10, this was the particulars
48 of their claim for the publication being published on an
49 occasion of qualified privilege.
50
51 Now, I have not done any research into the law on this
52 matter. One of the cases that I handed up the other
53 morning in relation to publication, when I was reading that
54 the other day I noticed that in actual fact that is about
55 privilege. That is Hebditch v. Mcilwaine QB Division 1894.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I have that.
58
59 MS. STEEL: On page 64 it starts. It says: "In order that the
60 occasion upon which a defamatory statement is made may be
