Day 158 - 19 Jul 95 - Page 42
1 My Lord, there one has a somewhat exceptional position.
2 What happened appears to have happened with the authority,
3 at least, of Mr. Rhea and, quite possibly, of Mr. Turner.
4
5 MS. STEEL: Can I just ask something on that because I thought a
6 few minutes ago Mr. Rampton said that Mr. Turner was shown
7 the letter. I cannot remember, but if there is a letter,
8 could he just point out where it is? That would be
9 helpful. Thank you.
10
11 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that being so, one has to scratch one's
12 head, in my submission, very hard to see any room even for
13 a reasonable belief, let alone a sensible inference, that
14 that might have recurred or, not might have, would have
15 recurred on other occasions at about that time.
16
17 One can see what will happen if this pleading stays as it
18 is, the second part of paragraph 2, "national sections of
19 the Company", thereby meaning all the worldwide
20 subsidiaries; we will be expected in the course of the next
21 two months to go around the whole world saying: "Did you
22 ever have a case where you imported some beef from Brazil?
23 If you did, where did that beef come from? How much beef
24 was it", and so on and so forth. If this is not a classic
25 fishing expedition, I do not know when I have ever seen
26 one.
27
28 My Lord, with that in mind -- because, in my submission,
29 those submissions I make are derived or reflect accurately
30 what Neill L.J. said -- I go back to the Court of Appeal in
31 March 1994.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It was page 12, and then -----
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I start on page 12 and I go on to
36 page 13.
37
38 MS. STEEL: Page 12 of the judgment?
39
40 MR. RAMPTON: Page 12 of the judgment, starting, my Lord, at
41 letter E:
42
43 "Nevertheless, I am satisfied that before a plea of
44 justification is included in a defence the following
45 criteria should normally be satisfied:
46 (a) the defendant should believe the words complained to
47 be true;
48 (b) the defendant should intend to support the defence of
49 justification at the trial;
50 (c) the defendant should have reasonable evidence to
51 support the plea or reasonable grounds for supposing that
52 sufficient evidence to prove the allegations will be
53 available at the trial."
54
55 Then he says something about fair comment at the top of the
56 page. Then at letter A on page 13:
57
58 "It is to be remembered that the defences of justification
59 and fair comment form part of the framework by which free
60 speech is protected. It is, therefore, important that no
