Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 20


     
     1        finished on Brazil.  It would help if I could get my
     2        thoughts together on Costa Rica before we launch into it.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will make a note you have finished on
     5        Brazil except for soya as a separate point.  We will be
     6        better off at the end of the day if we broke off until 2
     7        o'clock but we tried to keep going for the full time at the
     8        end of the day.
     9
    10   MR. MORRIS:  I will do my best.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Two o'clock.
    13
    14                         (Luncheon Adjournment)
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:   Costa Rica.  I do not know whether people want to
    17        get their map out.  It might help.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, just hold on a minute.  (Pause) Yes,
    20        carry on.
    21
    22   MR. MORRIS:   We start off with the admission on day one in
    23        court from Mr. Rampton, page 150 of his opening speech,
    24        "Thus, in Costa Rica when the first McDonald's restaurant
    25        was opened in 1970 some of the land on which the beef was
    26        raised had been rainforest up to the 1960s."
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:   No, my Lord that is not an admission.  What one
    29        says in opening, and Mr. Morris has made several such
    30        observations in the course of the last few days, that is
    31        not an admission; what one says in opening foreshadows what
    32        the evidence will be.  If at the end of the day the
    33        evidence shows a different picture, whether more or less
    34        favourable, that is what the judge decides the case on.
    35
    36   MR. MORRIS:   Well, I think the evidence has become less
    37        favourable.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   That is a different matter.
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:   We start off with that as our base.  If we look in
    42        the statement, for example, of David Rose -- the admission
    43        by Edie Bensilum to him, in the fourth paragraph of his
    44        statement -- she agreed, that is Edie Bensilum, that in the
    45        '50s the farms that were supplying McDonald's Costa Rica
    46        through Montecillos had been rainforest.  She said:
    47        "I think the world would admit that before that time..."
    48        It might be 'admit' or 'accept'.  I have a hole punched
    49        through it.  "...  before that time it was rainforest.  We
    50        have to accept that.  All we can do is to ensure that 
    51        deforestation", 'deforestation' is in brackets, "does not 
    52        continue on our behalf." 
    53
    54        Then in her statement, as we have heard, she says, "Most of
    55        the farms supplying McDonald's Costa Rica were..." -----
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Hold on a minute.  Why are you referring to
    58        her statement?   (Pause) She did not give evidence.
    59
    60   MR. MORRIS:   No, but she signed it and she is an official of

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