Day 123 - 09 May 95 - Page 46


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am going to take the five-minute break now,
     3        come what may.  Reflect on what I just said to you because
     4        I think really all you are going to do is summarise your
     5        argument again.  It does not help me.  You see, in order to
     6        answer your questions, anyway, Mr. Beavers has to reach a
     7        conclusion about what he thinks the leaflet means.  No
     8        disrespect to Mr. Beavers; it does not matter what Mr.
     9        Beavers thinks it means.  It does not help me to reach a
    10        conclusion about it; nor does it help me whether he thinks
    11        it is inaccurate or not to reach a conclusion about whether
    12        it is inaccurate or not.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  I am just trying to establish whether the text that
    15        I read out, if it appears in a document about McDonald's
    16        food whether Mr. Beavers thinks it would be defamatory.
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I will not accept that.  Mr. Morris is
    19        resolutely and deliberately ignoring that recent case from
    20        the House of Lords which one might have thought, from his
    21        answers, Mr. Beavers had read, rather than Mr. Morris read.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It just does not matter, Mr. Morris.  I am
    24        not making this point in order to stop you making a point
    25        which will help you in any way at the end of the day.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:   If Mr. Rampton wants us to read the ruling from the
    28        House of Lords, he had better tell us what it is called.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I gave you a copy of it the other day.  It
    31        was the neighbours, was it neighbours or the other one?
    32
    33   MR. RAMPTON:  I cannot remember, my Lord.  I will not say what
    34        its effect is; that will not be right.  Mr. Beavers has
    35        already in fact given the House of Lords answers to this
    36        question, two or three times.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, of course, that is in our favour.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It does not matter, you see, this is all
    41        argument.
    42
    43   MR. MORRIS:  I understand that.  Mr. Beavers is here to say why
    44        they have sued us for circulating this document.  I am
    45        putting to him a different document, and I am just asking
    46        him whether he would consider what it says in that other
    47        document defamatory as well.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think that helps me towards whatever
    50        may be the right conclusion at the end of this case. 
    51 
    52   MR. MORRIS:  The reality is that the document I read out is from 
    53        McDonald's own document, and we can have comment on that
    54        later, no doubt, that we are being sued for something that
    55        McDonald's circulated themselves.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That could well be the right approach, but
    58        I think that is the approach rather than asking Mr. Beavers
    59        more questions on that topic we will take our five-minute
    60        break and we will go on this afternoon, subject to anyone

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