Day 002 - 29 Jun 94 - Page 23

     
     1
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will merely indicate out of courtesy
     2        before the court is open again, I propose to allow the
              film to be shown at this stage.   I will give my reasons
     3        in public.
 
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am obliged.
 
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am going to open the court.  I will then
              have something to say quite shortly, then you can show the
     6        film.
 
     7                  (See separate transcript for ruling)
 
     8                            (In open court)
         (12.25 pm)
     9
         MR. MORRIS:  Can I just say, to clarify what people are going
    10        to see, there are two people interviewed.  There is one
              person interviewed twice.
    11
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There is the man in white.
    12
         MR. MORRIS:  Yes, the man in white with the hat is the Sales
    13        Director of the Coope Montecillos meat processing plant in
              Costa Rica that supplies McDonald's in Costa Rica.  He is
    14        talking about their exports to America.  The one in the
              middle is from a different organisation which is GSA.  So
    15        it is the one really on the outside, you will see the man
              in the white hat really.
    16
                         (Extract of the video was shown)
    17
         MR. MORRIS:  That was Sergio Quintana from Coope Montecillos
    18        meat factory in Costa Rica, the sales marketing director.
              We have the film producer to attend as a witness; we have
    19        the original transcript of the unedited interviews in
              which he stated the same thing four or five times on
    20        camera just to make it clear.
 
         The point I am making on that is -- believe it or not to
              go back to where I was in my opening speech -- on
    22        discovery.  Now McDonald's, of course, claim they can
              guarantee that they have never imported any beef from
    23        Central America into the States.  That is a completely
              ludicrous claim, because they cannot possibly know that
    24        for sure anyway since 1955.  But, in any event, it is our
              case that they have been importing.
    25
              We have sought discovery -- what I was talking about -- we 
    26        have sought discovery of documents regarding Coope 
              Montecillos.  We disclosed some documents which we got 
    27        from another source, internal correspondence with Coope
              Montecillos and McDonald's, about four or five documents,
    28        relating to this issue.  We disclosed that to McDonald's
              last year.
    29
              Since then we have applied for discovery any number of
    30        times for the full sets of the correspondence referred to,
              reports of inspections of Coope Montecillos made by