Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 71
1 what I had to say or will have to say relates to paragraphs
2 (1) to (5). What I have to say about (6) will not,
3 I believe, affect any question of discovery because all the
4 material that might be relevant to that pleading, if it
5 were in proper form, has already been disclosed and there
6 has been a good deal of evidence about it.
7
8 The same with 12 and 13. The objection to 12 and 13 is a
9 joint. One those two objections go together. It is very
10 simple. That is a matter of argument, not a matter of
11 discovery. (15), my belief is that your Lordship has
12 already ruled on that, so that that should not take very
13 long. It does not, in my belief, give rise to any question
14 of discovery at all. The other matters which I am not
15 opposing, of course, might but that depends on how I choose
16 to deal with them, about which I will say no more at the
17 moment.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I want to come back to (1) to (5) in a
20 moment, Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel, that is, the destruction
21 of the environment suggested amendments. But you said you
22 wanted to raise some matters arising out of my ruling. I
23 do not want you to argue them now, but can you say which of
24 those should be dealt with, in your view, before we do the
25 remainder of the rearing and slaughter and food poisoning
26 witnesses? What, if any, other matters of substance are
27 there which must be decided now? Just take a moment.
28 I must leave at half past four for an appointment somewhere
29 else.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: While Mr. Morris is thinking, can I hand up an
32 addition or a continuation of your Lordship lavender
33 diary? My Lord, I inform your Lordship that I am now
34 serving a counter notice in respect of the author of the
35 Health & Safety Executive report into McDonald's
36 restaurants requiring the Defendants to call the author of
37 that report, a Mr. Andrew Foster.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: I do not remember what the matters in the rulings
40 were because, to be honest, I have not had a chance to read
41 them for about a week. I did look at them at the time. I
42 cannot remember what it was we discussed off the top of my
43 head.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I explain? Let me come back to (1) to
46 (5) then, because at the moment it looks to me as if we
47 could spend the morning, or such of it as required, arguing
48 or discussing the matters we have spoken about so far.
49
50 When I hear argument about the amendments which you have
51 listed in five paragraphs under Destruction of the
52 Environment, it may very well be that I will want you to
53 point me to what you say is the reasonable evidence to
54 support the pleas which you wish to make in the amendment,
55 or the reasonable grounds which you have for supposing that
56 there is sufficient evidence to prove the allegations or
57 that it will become available. If you look at
58 Lord Justice Neill's Judgment in the Court of Appeal at
59 page 12E, and particularly subparagraph (c), you will
60 recognise the words which I have used.
