Day 200 - 12 Dec 95 - Page 26
1 have moved.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I did not see an admission in this case which
4 removed an issue which was really at the heart of what I
5 had to decide.
6
7 MS. STEEL: The Plaintiffs did not want us to call any evidence
8 on heart disease whatsoever. They said that we should not
9 call Mr. Brown, for example and they did not want
10 Mr. Crawford to give evidence on heart disease; they said
11 it was not necessary because they had admitted that issue.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have to get to grips with the situation.
14 That is all water under the bridge. This is your
15 opportunity to decide which evidence you want to call.
16 What I am trying to do is get you to focus on the fact you
17 have to make that decision, and it is no use having
18 recriminations about what has happened in the past.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: No.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, if you have recriminations
23 about what has happened in the past, you are going to take
24 your eye off the ball of what you must do in the future.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: Yes. The reason I said what I said about the
27 meaning is because Mr. Rampton, we believe successfully, is
28 always trying to move the goal posts on what this meaning
29 means because, as you have said, you are not willing to
30 make any clarification. That is fine, but Mr. Rampton has
31 already put his oar in about what he thinks your meaning
32 says. No doubt at the end of the case we will hear that
33 again.
34
35 I would accept that under your meaning the frequency of
36 consuming McDonald's food is still an issue, that the link
37 between diet and ill-health which Mr. Rampton has already
38 now admitted is not a defamatory issue, just to link diet
39 and ill-health is not defamatory (which is an interesting
40 point, which is what our point has been, of course), and so
41 the exact nature of that link, we need to firm up our
42 evidence that it is a causal link which we do not believe
43 is a problem in proving that.
44
45 Then the issue of the deceptiveness of their nutritional
46 guides is still an issue. Therefore, obviously, we would
47 recall Jane Brophey -- we have not called her yet. She is
48 planned to be called. She is a nutritionist in any event.
49
50 So we would agree that there is a need for further
51 witnesses on this issue.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would like you to do, because you have
54 a bit of time until Friday, is to give some serious thought
55 as to just who you want to recall or call for the first
56 time like Miss Brophey, and sit down and think how long it
57 is going to take, you think. Then I will ask Mr. Rampton
58 how long he thinks his cross-examination of Professor
59 Crawford is going to be. We will come back to the
60 Fairgrieve documents on Friday because we have the time on
