Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 54


     
     1        general allegation and that has not been admitted you can
     2        seek further information about a specific fact which you
     3        have alleged and which has been admitted.
     4
     5   MS. STEEL:   Where -----
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You should really have what you want for all
     8        the argument about a report about the Oregon outbreak.
     9        Having read that during the mid-day adjournment, I have to
    10        say it might establish things on balance of probabilities,
    11        but it did not end up as conclusive as I read through what
    12        I thought it might with the discussion at the very end.
    13
    14        If I am prepared to treat Mr. Rummel's statement taken with
    15        the allegation you have made as proving on balance of
    16        probability that during 1982 at least 47 people from
    17        Oregon, Michigan and other States in the United States of
    18        America suffered E.coli food poisoning after eating, that
    19        is, as a result of eating McDonald's hamburgers, then
    20        whatever debate there might have been about the matter, you
    21        have got what you set out to prove so far as that is
    22        concerned.  The same with regard to typhoid, although he
    23        goes on to explain why that should be so.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:   Although the fact is admitted that there was an
    26        incident of food poisoning, we should be entitled to
    27        cross-examine and to see relevant documents about the issue
    28        of the causes as in that pathogenic bacteria were found in
    29        the meat and that the grills that were being used to cook
    30        burgers were found to have uneven temperatures, because
    31        that has implications for the wider pleading of meat being
    32        responsible for the majority of cases of food poisoning
    33        and, obviously, to the issue of McDonald's saying that
    34        their systems are infallible or their attempts to imply
    35        that.  For example, after Oregon was there a review of
    36        cooking procedures; did the temperature get increased; did
    37        the grills get changed, were steps taken in the USA (like
    38        they say have been taken over here) that suppliers have to
    39        tie off the oesophagus to prevent contamination from the
    40        gut getting into the meat, and matters such as that.
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:  Could we have a quick two minute break?  Can I pass
    43        up a document?  It is a note I received last night from our
    44        expert in the United States on US suppliers, beef
    45        suppliers.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:  Going through it, not exactly in the order
    50        Mr. Rampton went through, there were other applications 
    51        which he did not mention, just to say under our list 
    52        Destruction of the Environment on our application on 
    53        February 3rd, or the list on 3rd February, I checked the
    54        transcript of Mr. Gonzalez and he said it was not Guatemala
    55        that he saw a map on display, but he thought, he was not
    56        sure, that he saw a map in Costa Rica which was showing
    57        supply sources.
    58
    59        So, that application that says "Guatemala map on display"
    60        should, in fact, be "Costa Rica".  The Plaintiffs have said

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