Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 28


     
     1        charges under the same part of the leaflet.
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:   Indeed so.  I mean, under employment, for
     4        example.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Under nutrition, one has the risk involved
     7        in the food they are putting out and a deception.
     8
     9   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So they might be general charges.  I
    12        suppose it might be arguable that section 5 might come   in
    13        there, might it, although it is difficult to see how  it
    14        might in the actual context of the case.
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  I find it in my own mind very difficult to
    17        separate the two, as your Honour did in the ruling on that
    18        meaning.  If the food is that dangerous, then perforce
    19        McDonald's are bound to know it.
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.  If you think I have -- I will not beat
    22        around the bush -- if you think I have given advice to the
    23        defendants which is bad in law at any point, I would be
    24        very grateful if you said so.  I appreciate you are
    25        McDonald's advocate, but one way or another one has to get
    26        to the right result.
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:   I hope what I have just said now in relation to
    29        the leaflet and in relation to the rainforests specifically
    30        is perfectly fair.  Obviously in employment there are a
    31        number of different allegations in the leaflet.  If one
    32        came to the conclusion that the most serious of those
    33        allegations was, for example - I am not making an
    34        advocate's case now at all - for example, that anybody who
    35        sought to join a trade union was immediately sacked, and
    36        that was not proved, then the fact that by comparison with
    37        other jobs the wages might be thought low, if that were so,
    38        that would not save the defendants.
    39        The other way round, it might do.  It would be a matter for
    40        your Lordship at the end to weigh the gravity of the
    41        different charges.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have to do a balancing exercise.
    44
    45   MR. RAMPTON:   Yes, indeed.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think it actually alters the way
    48        Mr. Morris need address me at the end of the day, or has
    49        been addressing me.  I am grateful.
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:   My Lord, all I would say then is that I am not 
    52        keen to sort of jump up when I think maybe the law is not 
    53        quite as I see it in the exchange between your Lordship and
    54        Mr. Morris.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  All I have in mind is if I may say something
    57        which sets them off on a course which may be to their
    58        disadvantage due to an error of mine in the first place.
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:   If I can have a sort of general permission to

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