Day 158 - 19 Jul 95 - Page 57


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  To what extent am I empowered to tinker with
     3        a proposed amendment and then grant leave to amend in some
     4        more restrictive form, unless the person who wants the
     5        amendment actually applies for it in that form?
     6
     7   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not know.  Unless your Lordship produces
     8        something absolutely horrendous which prompts me to go
     9        straight to the Court of Appeal, I really would not want to
    10        commit myself about that.  I cannot really see an
    11        objection, but I really do think that in its present form
    12        at least it is a pretty good nonsense, because the only
    13        actual areas identified are the Vesty areas.  The Braslo
    14        areas are not even spoken about in this pleading.
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  That is not true.  the plant is based in Goiais,
    17        the northern most plant, and Mato Grosso is bordering
    18        Goiais and Mato Grosso Do Sul.
    19
    20   MR. RAMPTON:  Then if Mr. Morris is saying that Mato Grosso
    21        Do Sul is or was rain forest he must say so.  If he is
    22        saying that Goiais was he must say so.  There is one of the
    23        Braslo plants in Goiais, that is Goiana and that is all.
    24        The others are by implication all excluded from Mr. Morris'
    25        pleading: Campo Grande, Uberiandia and Bauru.  That is
    26        because I said he has conflated or confused the Vesty
    27        question, which is a narrow distant piece of ancient
    28        history, with the continuing supply of meat to McDonald's
    29        in Brazil.  He says in his pleading that Barretos, if
    30        I have it right, is in a region including and/or border an
    31        area of ex-rainforest land.  Barretos I think is about ----
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:  No, it does not say that.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think the "plant" is possibly not the best
    36        word to use.  Just allow me a moment.  No, it is fair
    37        enough, it comes from the letter.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But "plant" may be appropriate to Barretos
    42        but not to Mato Grosso if one inserts "Do Sul" and "Goiais"
    43        because they are not plants.
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  They are regions as specified in the pleading.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  They are McDonald's raw material suppliers.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  I would like to know in due course if any part of
    50        this pleading were allowed which are the parts respectively 
    51        of Mato Grosso and Goiais which either have in them 
    52        ex-rainforest land, and this is an assertion of fact, my 
    53        Lord, this is not an inference based on anything, it is an
    54        assertion of fact, because it says that they either include
    55        or they border areas of rain forest land.  I would
    56        certainly want to know which parts of those very large
    57        areas were once rain forest, in other words including
    58        ex-rainforest land, and which parts border ex-rainforest
    59        land, where those parts are in each case, how large they
    60        are and how long ago it was that they were rain forest.

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