Day 079 - 27 Jan 95 - Page 12
1
2 MR. RAMPTON: Please, Mr. Morris, please. My Lord, what has
3 been admitted is what is pleaded. The Defendants must
4 know -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am assuming that the report referred to in
7 the pleading and, therefore, in the admission is this
8 report until I am told otherwise. But it does not affect
9 my ruling so far as cross-examination of this witness is
10 concerned. If you have an argument in relation to the
11 document itself, its standing, whether you are entitled to
12 call any witness to give evidence of any of the matters
13 which appear in the report, I will deal with those in due
14 course. For the time being while Mr. Walker is in the
15 witness box, you must cross-examine him on the basis of
16 this document in so far as you or Ms. Steel wishes to do so
17 in the way in which I have ruled that you should.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: I understand we cannot rely on the document as
20 evidence, but that we can rely on the fact that it is the
21 official Public Health Laboratory report as recognised in
22 the admission.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I have said is that on present
25 information I am assuming that it is.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: And the Plaintiffs have not contradicted ----
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know what will happen next week,
30 Mr. Morris, but that is the basis upon which I am working
31 at the moment, if only because it is the only Public Health
32 Laboratory Service report which has been brought to my
33 attention which I know of.
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: I still believe from what he has just said, though
36 he is sitting down, Mr. Morris may not yet have grasped the
37 effect of your Lordship's ruling. What is admitted is that
38 there was such a report and what its conclusion was, and
39 McDonald's did not at that time admit liability, despite
40 the findings of the report. That is the only extent to
41 which that report is admissible at this stage.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you very much. We are taking a lot of
44 time out of the cross-examination of Mr. Walker. Let us
45 get back to that. If any of these other issues crop up in
46 the future, as it seems to me clear that they will, I will
47 make a ruling on them.
48
49 MS. STEEL: Did McDonald's tell you there was a Public Health
50 Laboratory official report?
51 A. No.
52
53 Q. They did not. Do you not think that would be somewhat
54 irresponsible for them, given that you are supplying their
55 meat?
56 A. No, I do not because they would have known that my
57 Group Technical Manager would have been involved in all of
58 the meetings and all of the reports. I mean, the answer to
59 your question, did they tell me, is still "no".
60
