Day 057 - 29 Nov 94 - Page 40


     
     1        hold that belief that a Reuter's telex would be an accurate
     2        report on the situation, and that McDonald's would have the
     3        details in their possession.  It was this year, 1994, and
     4        McDonald's advertising department in Denmark will
     5        certainly, if the situation is true, have relevant copies
     6        of documents.  They can fax them to me, if they want.  They
     7        have my fax number and they do not have to even put it in
     8        an envelope.  I could have it by tomorrow morning.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What do you say, Mr. Rampton?
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I say again much the same as I said the
    13        last time.  I say it now in advance in relation to the next
    14        item which is some supposed ruling in Sweden.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can I start with this?  Do you know whether
    17        your clients do have a copy of any ruling?
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  Where, from Denmark or Sweden?
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  From either.
    22
    23   MR. RAMPTON:  Not at the moment, no.  No, I do not.  What
    24        I object to is this, not making discovery on some issue
    25        which is going to carry the matter forward, of course, I do
    26        not object to that.  I hope that your Lordship will think
    27        we have done the best we can where every area where that
    28        can be said.
    29
    30        What I do object to is this, fuelling Mr. Morris'
    31        misconceived idea that because some authority or body or
    32        association somewhere in the world has, as it were,
    33        reflected criticisms which the Defendants might themselves
    34        wish to make about McDonald's, whether it be advertising or
    35        anything else, that that adds weight or fuel to the
    36        Defendants' criticisms -- of course it does not.
    37
    38        If it were the case that the Defendants had alleged and
    39        were in a position to prove (but they have not done so and
    40        are not) that throughout the world McDonald's habitually
    41        and deliberately flout local laws and regulations in
    42        relation to the various areas of their activity, that would
    43        be quite another matter.  But, the opinion of the Denmark
    44        bodies, whatever it might have been -- it may even just
    45        have been some busy body, for all I know -- or the Swedish
    46        Advertising Authority is of no more weight in your
    47        Lordship's court and in relation to the decisions which
    48        your Lordship has to make, which is whether the advertising
    49        is inappropriate in one way or another, than does the
    50        opinion of Mr. Steve Gardiner, the Assistant Attorney 
    51        General of Texas. 
    52 
    53        I say that for this reason, not because I object in
    54        principle to making discovery -- I have said that already
    55         -- but because Mr. Morris' idea that one just has to press
    56        a button and the documents which he wants, no doubt, to
    57        feed to the public at large will pop out of a slot from
    58        within the McDonald's organisation is, quite honestly, a
    59        nonsense.
    60

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