Day 294 - 05 Nov 96 - Page 14


     
     1        try and do that tomorrow.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   You can certainly do that, and obviously the
     4        first thing I have to do in relation to each of these
     5        sections is decide what I think the meaning is and then,
     6        having decided that, whether it is defamatory of the first
     7        plaintiff and the second plaintiff.  You can obviously
     8        address me at any time on it.  If either of you have second
     9        thoughts about the meaning in any section and wish to
    10        reformulate what you say is the meaning, I suggest you
    11        write it down and just hand it in to me at the end and we
    12        can have such discussion as is necessary on that.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.  Obviously, we had some initial pleaded
    15        meanings and comments which have pretty well stood the test
    16        of time.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I am giving you is an opportunity to say
    19        you are still adhering to that, since with everyone's
    20        pennies continuing to drop during the hearing of any case,
    21        and especially if it is a long one -- this is not peculiar
    22        to you, it is certainly true of me -- at any stage if you
    23        have a further thought, you can tell me what it is.
    24
    25   MR. MORRIS:   Right.  OK.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Obviously, you are particularly concerned
    28        with what can be justified in the evidence because that is
    29        what you want to tell me about, but one must not neglect
    30        the importance of getting the right meaning and whether it
    31        is defamatory.  I have your point that putting it in
    32        a nutshell you say the leaflet is only pointing out the
    33        risks of food poisoning from a meat based diet.
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, basically, and we believe that we have
    36        demonstrated that.  We believe that McDonald's accept that
    37        there are risks and that they are serious risks, because
    38        they say they take them seriously.  In fact their defence,
    39        their case, is that they do the best they can.  But whether
    40        or not they do the best they can, which we do not think
    41        they do anyway -- whether or not they do the best they can
    42         -- is irrelevant to the fact, the reality, which the fact
    43        sheet points to.  So I am going to go through some of the
    44        reality, and then tomorrow we will hand up a document with
    45        references.  So I am not going to bother about-----
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Right.  Core submissions then.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:   Well, Dr. North really gave an overview of this
    50        subject.  He was a specialist in food hygiene and food
    51        safety, and he had made expert visits on our behalf to
    52        McKeys hamburger production factory and Sun Valley Poultry
    53        suppliers and to a local McDonald's store.  He agreed that
    54        the majority of the reported food poisoning incidents are
    55        linked to eating meat, especially chicken and minced beef.
    56        For example, for burgers, which is exactly what it says in
    57        the fact sheet, the high volume, intensive Sun Valley
    58        production system, he explained, "produced chicken meat,
    59        meat with a salmonella burden of 25 percent magnified from
    60        one percent in the live birds."  So they were clearly

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