Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 42
1 MR. RAMPTON: Paragraph 12, sub-paragraph 3, where we rely on
2 the terms of various documents. There are two documents,
3 which I will come back to when I get to the counterclaim
4 bit, which are (to use the terms which counsel used to use
5 30 years ago) absolutely redolent of malice. They are the
6 McLibel Support Campaign document, which is to be found at
7 tab 65 of pink 1A, and that is October 1990; and, in
8 particular -- and I emphasise this because it is an
9 absolutely dreadful document; I will not dignify it by
10 reading it out in court -- the McLibel Support Campaign
11 document of February 1991.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What was the date of the first one: October
14 1990?
15
16 MR. RAMPTON: October 1990. This is very relevant to the
17 counterclaim, when one gets to the question about the
18 solicitors' letter; and I will come back to it then.
19 February 1991, which is tab 86 of pink 1A, which was issued
20 at a time when the only two remaining Defendants were
21 Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris, which uses terms like
22 "McDestroyers", "McCancer", "misleads the public about the
23 nutritional content of their food", "McSlavedrivers",
24 "McLiars", "to answer for their crimes", "McDirty", "No,
25 they are guilty".
26
27 The value of those documents, quite apart from the fact
28 that they provide a defence to the counterclaim, the value
29 of those documents is that they come so early on in the
30 course of these proceedings. They illuminate the
31 Defendants' state of mind at a time which is very close to
32 the time when the writ was first issued.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Unless you have anything more to say in
35 relation to malice, we will adjourn now, and I will resume
36 at two o'clock with that which I have to ask in relation to
37 counterclaim and damages.
38
39 (Luncheon Adjournment)
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. There is one matter on malice
42 I remembered over the adjournment. I am still rather
43 anxious about the way murder comes in every now and again,
44 still, because part of malice sets off really dealing
45 with -----
46
47 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, my Lord, I quite accept that. That bit was
48 written, of course, before the exchange that your Lordship
49 and I had the other day.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
52
53 MR. RAMPTON: I apologise that I have not had time to change it.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
56
57 MR. RAMPTON: It does not change the underlying principle. What
58 it means, in all probability, is that malice has not got a
59 lot to do with the main claim, except in so far as it
60 impinges on damages (which to some considerable extent it
