Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 54
1 the main points to which McDonald's were responding which
2 are contained in large part, though not exclusively, in the
3 documents which are in Mr. Preston's third and fourth
4 appendices.
5
6 I am not going to read those out. I do ask your Lordship,
7 because I know you will, to pay particular attention to the
8 welter of false allegations that were being made, and very
9 serious allegations that were being made, by the Defendants
10 in the months from January to the beginning of March 1994.
11
12 I perhaps ought to add this, that if one supposed that
13 McDonald's was a human being, which it is not, but if one
14 supposed that it were, and one asks oneself what kind of
15 material would that person be entitled to put out in
16 response to these venomous allegations by the Defendants
17 over a period of months made in the public forum, one would
18 be bound to say that that person would have been entitled
19 to express himself in terms directed at the Defendants'
20 personally, which at any rate matched the venom of what the
21 Defendants had been saying about McDonald's in those
22 preceding months, instead of which they do not even name
23 the Defendants, the attack of the responsive documents is
24 aimed not at people, primarily, but at the leaflet itself.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there anything more you want to say about
27 counterclaim because if not I will go on to damages?
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: Right, my Lord, yes. I say straight away that
30 I have actually brought to court copies of the passage from
31 Broom v Castle, which is cited in the written submission.
32 Your Lordship will have it, but I thought the Defendants
33 might not.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If they could be given to Ms. Steel and
36 Mr. Morris. I do not need a copy because I have the report
37 in my room.
38
39 MR. RAMPTON: May I say -- this is not directed to your Lordship
40 -- if they are going to take legal advice about this it is
41 necessary to read the whole report, not just the bit that I
42 have extracted. (Handed to the Defendants) I have
43 highlighted the passage which I quoted. Sorry, my Lord.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The matters I wanted to ask about are very
46 limited. In paragraph 5 on page 3 -- is that right?
47
48 MR. RAMPTON: I say, that is the question Mr. Atkinson asked me.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
51
52 MR. RAMPTON: I think as a matter of logic that it must be. At
53 any rate in that area of the awards of damages which
54 reflects vindication rather than compensation. And it does
55 seem to us -- or it seems to me, I had better not use the
56 first person because that would not be justified -- it does
57 seem to me -- that if the principal function of an awards
58 of damages, certainly in relation to a company that does
59 not claim actual loss, is to vindicate its trading
60 reputation, then if and I am making the law up as I go
