Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 13


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  I will not repeat what Helen said.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is crystal clear about the
     5        word "linked"?
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  On that point, I agree with what Helen has said
     8        exactly.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But what Ms. Steel has said is that
    11        "linked" -- I do not mean to distort her argument -- could
    12        mean as a "cause" or could mean in some other respect.  So
    13        I am asking, if it might mean different things, what is
    14        crystal clear about it?
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  It is crystal clear that "linked" is a generic
    17        word.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which may mean any of those things?
    20
    21   MR. MORRIS:  No, not which may mean any of those things, but it
    22        is a generic word and there are different types of "link".
    23        Any type of link that can be proven would be proving that
    24        sentence and that part of the leaflet.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Then, you see, what the Plaintiffs no doubt
    27        say is that if "link" itself may mean a variety of things,
    28        there may be a variety of links, then it is all the more
    29        essential to look at the whole context and see where that
    30        takes you, to look at the headline -- and I have heard what
    31        Ms. Steel has said about that; I do not mean the front
    32        page, I mean the Golden Arches -- and what is written in
    33        those, and to look at the cartoon as well, because if
    34        "link" is one of those English words which can be used to
    35        convey a variety of meanings, then the English reader is
    36        going to look, is he not (or she not), elsewhere in the
    37        leaflet for some guidance as to what link is meaning here?
    38
    39        I am in part, as it were, regurgitating Mr. Rampton's
    40        argument, but that is only because it would be my own
    41        reaction, if you have a word which might have a number of
    42        meanings, to look elsewhere closely to get some guidance as
    43        to what it means.  To some extent that may be a lawyer's
    44        approach, but it would also, I suggest, be the ordinary
    45        reader's approach, would it not?
    46
    47   MR. MORRIS:  If it is the ordinary person's approach -- which we
    48        do not accept that that can mean "causal link" -- we are
    49        being put to prove a medical causation.  So we are saying
    50        that that does not state there is a medical causation. 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:  I think there is a difference between "causal" 
    53        and "cause and effect", as well.  For example, again with
    54        the smoking, the witnesses have said that cause and effect
    55        has not been shown, but there is thought to be a causal
    56        link.  Anyway, Dave wants to carry on .....
    57
    58   MR. MORRIS:  I want to focus on the other aspect which is the
    59        meals, because I felt that has not had much attention and
    60        it has been slipped in by the back door.  Mr. Rampton,

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