Day 079 - 27 Jan 95 - Page 04

     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, you have to have some specific reason.
     2        I cannot control what a witness may happen to volunteer in
     3        evidence, but if you are to ask questions it must bear some
     4        relevance to an issue in the case.
     5
     6   MS. STEEL:   It does.
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:  It is relevant to the issue in the case which is
     9        hamburger production and E.coli.  Jeff Banks was involved
    10        in this in there; he may have seen new procedures which he
    11        felt should be used here and it is highly relevant.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, I rule against you on that.
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  I think the natural flow of the questioning is
    16        being undermined by the Plaintiffs.  It is different if we
    17        are going off at a tangent for an hour and a half about
    18        something, but if we are asking three questions about a
    19        related incident or something, then it is not fair.
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You must respect my ruling.
    22
    23   MS. STEEL (To the witness):  So we do not know why Mr. Banks was
    24        telling you what he wanted to tell you.  What did he
    25        actually tell you about E.coli?
    26        A.  We had Dr. Banks in to a meeting in which we called all
    27        of our meat suppliers to that meeting, and he advised us on
    28        tests which we set up in our laboratory.  He also advised
    29        the meat suppliers on what they should do on the abattoir
    30        sites.
    31
    32   Q.   Which was what?
    33        A.  The bacteriological procedure in the laboratories, the
    34        type of agar used, and it was his recommendation that we
    35        should tie off the bung and the oesophagus.
    36
    37   Q.   How did he say that would help?
    38        A.  I cannot remember now the detail.  I mean, it was just
    39        his general advice.  I mean, there was a full presentation,
    40        slides, documents.
    41
    42   Q.   About what?
    43        A.  About E.coli.
    44
    45   Q.   What did he say the problem was with E.coli?
    46        A.  Essentially, he gave the background to E.coli; the fact
    47        that E.coli is a bacterium which is very prevalent in
    48        animals and humans.
    49
    50   Q.   We are talking about E.coli 0157: H? 
    51        A.  0157: H, yes. 
    52 
    53   Q.   He said it was very prevalent in animals and humans?
    54        A.  Yes.
    55
    56   Q.   Presumably, not in very large quantities otherwise it would
    57        be impossible to avoid it at all, getting food poisoning,
    58        that is?
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you know about that or not?