Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 51
1 suppliers in the Plaintiffs in the United States, could
2 have take that opportunity to make enquiries of those
3 suppliers for 1989, which is the year in which the pamphlet
4 was published by these Defendants, if we are right, to ask
5 them: "Are you quite certain that you have complied with
6 McDonald's requirement that this beef is not though marked
7 'domestic' in fact imported beef?" That they have not
8 done.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The order of events, as you have said, is in
11 fact disclosure of relevant quality assurance
12 specifications, certificates of acceptance and certain
13 letters really to the same effect?
14
15 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Then whatever you say about what might have
18 happened, the 1979, 1983 and 1984, similar documents are
19 disclosable, are they not?
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. I assume the reason they were not disclosed
22 is that they do not exist.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know.
25
26 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I do know, with respect. A number of
27 them were disclosed in relation to what I call the Duke
28 Edinburgh's spat relating to 1983. They are to be found in
29 yellow volume 14. The same process. That discovery came
30 later because the documents were found by accident in
31 Barlow's office, as your Lordship knows. It was thought
32 that originally none existed, but what is certain is that
33 there are no documents, because a search has been made,
34 relevant to this question, "Where does McDonald's US beef
35 come from", in McDonald's possession, custody or power in
36 the United States of America, else they would have been
37 disclosed, as were these 1983 documents when they were
38 found in the possession of McDonald's UK in their
39 solicitors' office in this country.
40
41 Again, the Defendants could have taken the opportunity when
42 that discovery was made to get in touch with the suppliers
43 named, and I do not suppose that is an exhaustive list but
44 there are some suppliers named in that discovery, to say,
45 "Well, is this really true? How can you be sure this is
46 not imported beef?" They have not done it and one wonders
47 why not.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Have you made any enquiry of any of these,
50 because you say the purpose in obtaining the list is to
51 make enquiries and I have to ask myself whether it is going
52 to lead to any useful enquiry? It might have occurred to
53 you, for all I know it did but did you not think it was
54 worth any further enquiry, that any number of the people on
55 the list in 1989 would have been on it, for instance, in
56 1984. There is no point in having information if the
57 reality is that it is not going to be chased up. What, in
58 effect, Mr. Rampton is saying is you have not chased up the
59 1989 ones; it is just information for no purpose to give
60 you 1979, 1983 and 1984.
