Day 064 - 08 Dec 94 - Page 20

     
     1        A.  I can tell you, as I told you when I gave evidence to
     2        Mr. Rampton, McKey with all the BSE checks they have ever
     3        made have never found any evidence of BSE in the beef they
     4        receive.
     5
     6   Q.   This is a fundamental point.  It is not about the
     7        specifics.  You have said that, for example, you do not
     8        have a policy of requiring the farms of origin of your beef
     9        to be identified by the suppliers.  You are leaving it to
    10        McKey's on trust to carry-out the checks it thinks are
    11        necessary.  So, do you not feel as a responsible company in
    12        the light of problems that are indicated in this statement
    13        that you should have more stringent specifications of what
    14        your suppliers McKey should be doing to enforce hygiene
    15        and -----
    16
    17   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, that is based on a priori assumption that
    18        anything in that statement is true which it very likely is
    19        not.
    20
    MR. MORRIS:  I do not know how Mr. Rampton would know it is not
    22        true.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You put the question on the basis that it is
    25        true.  I am actually going to stop you cross-examining any
    26        further on this statement.  If at some stage when we have
    27        heard more direct evidence you can put to me:   "Look,
    28        I really ought to be able to ask Mr. Oakley this, or
    29        I ought to have been allowed to ask him that on Thursday,
    30        8th December 1994", I will consider it and rule as
    31        I consider right and just in all the circumstances.
    32
    33        But there is too much hypothesis in your questions which
    34        are in any event in relation to matters which Mr. Oakley
    35        says he knows nothing about it to make the
    36        cross-examination of any use at this stage.  If I thought
    37        you were being prejudiced by that, I would not be making
    38        the decision I have made.
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:  Can I just clarify something which is that all our
         witnesses come after the Plaintiffs' witnesses.  Therefore,
    42        if we are not allowed to put anything that is in their
    43        statements on the grounds that it is hypothesising because
    44        it has not been proved, we cannot, effectively, ask the
    45        Plaintiffs' witnesses about our case, and ask them, you
    46        know, what they think about what our witnesses are saying.
    47        So, I do not understand really.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is not purely because they are
    50        hypothetical.  In my view, they are not being directed at 
    51        the person who knows about them or might know about them. 
    52        You must abide by my ruling.  We will hear Mr. Walker from 
    53        McKey before Ms. Hovey(?).  If McDonald's indicate that
    54        they want to call someone from the abattoir, we will hear
    55        that witness before we hear Ms. Hovey.  I want you to
    56        remind me that I have said that.  It is not productive in a
    57        case of this size with so many witnesses and so many issues
    58        to be asking hypothetical questions of a witness who says:
    59        "I do not know about that".
    60