Day 076 - 18 Jan 95 - Page 24

     
     1        deciding whether you want to do that, you have to form your
     2        own judgment as to the importance of the matter in
     3        question, and make an assessment of whether it is going to
     4        be useful to you to do it and take into account any other
     5        factors in deciding whether you want to do it.  If you do
     6        not do it, I will not draw any inference against you.
     7        I will not say:  "Oh, Mr. Morris could have called
     8        Mrs. So-and-so but for some reason he has not done so", so
     9        do not worry about that.
    10
    11        But, on matters of admissibility, as you know, you have to
    12        accept my decision and you are entitled to look around and
    13        say:  "Well, if that is the Judge's view, what do we do
    14        next?"  So, I am focusing you on that point now; do you
    15        understand?
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, might I add to that this (and it may save
    20        time in the end), my understanding is that it is perfectly
         proper for a letter written by or on behalf of one of the
    22        Residents Associations of which Mr. McIntyre is or has been
    23        a member, and for the Defendants to ask Mr. McIntyre
    24        whether that letter represents his own views.  What is not
    25        proper is to go through letters written by other people who
    26        are not members of the same Association.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You can refer -- I am not going to stop you
    29        referring to any letter which is in the bundle, but you
    30        will have to bear in mind the limits of what it can prove
    31        in so far as Mr. McIntyre can speak to something in it.
    32        If, for instance, it prompted him to say:  "Yes, well,
    33        I remember observing that myself or I remember meeting
    34        someone from McDonald's in relation to that now I see this
    35        letter", that is fair game, because people do forget things
    36        and seeing a letter written by someone else may prompt them
    37        to remember something on which they can give admissible
    38        evidence.  But let us see how we go.
    39
    40        If we come to a situation in one of the letters where you
         realise that what you would like to do is falling foul of
    42        the ruling I have made as to admissibility, just make a
    43        mental note or, better still, one of you make a written
    44        note:  "Mr. So-and-so or Miss So-and-so" and you can decide
    45        whether you want to make any approach to that person and,
    46        if the approach bears fruit, whether you want to say:
    47         "Well, do you mind if, late in the day though it may be,
    48        we call that person?"  As I have said, I will not start
    49        speculating about why someone has not been called if they
    50        are not called, but, if I may suggest it, that is an 
    51        approach you ought to be considering. 
    52 
    53   MS. STEEL:  Can I ask for clarification?  Does this mean that if
    54        McDonald's wants to say, for example:  "We care about the
    55        welfare of animals", they now have to call every employee
    56        of the company to state exactly the same thing:  "We care
    57        about animals" because otherwise it will just be the
    58        individual opinion of one executive?
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, each situation has to be considered in