Day 097 - 06 Mar 95 - Page 24

     
     1        amendment?
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, my Lord.  It will not take me very long to
     4        state my objection to the bit we are dealing with today.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Right.  I will not say anything more about
     7        Mr. Chambers then.  We will see how we go.  I will come
     8        back in five minutes.
     9
    10                       (Short Adjournment)
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is there any reason why we should not go back
    13        into open court or do you want to stay in chambers.
    14
    15   MR. RAMPTON:  I am not worried about that.  My Lord, I deal only
    16        with the second part of the proposed amendment starting at
    17        paragraph 6.  As your Lordship will see, I propose that the
    18        first two sentences of paragraph 6, the first sentence of
    19        paragraph 12, the whole of paragraph 13, and the last
    20        paragraph, 15.  My Lord, 15, as I think I said the other
         day, has, in our submission, already been dealt with by
    22        your Lordship's ruling of 27th February at pages 2E to 3B.
    23
    24        We have that in hand and will, of course, tell your
    25        Lordship as soon as possible what the position is in
    26        relation to those lists, whether existing or easily
    27        compilable, of suppliers for those years or as many as we
    28        can deal with.
    29
    30        My Lord, may I take your Lordship backwards through the
    31        pleading?  It is probably easier.  My objection to
    32        paragraphs 12 and 13 go together.  It is really an
    33        objection, partly of logic and partly of evidence.
    34        Paragraph 12 says:  "The cause of the food poisoning
    35        outbreak was under-cooking of burgers contaminated by
    36        E.coli 0157 H bacteria".  Paragraph 13 says:  "The incident
    37        was caused by bacterial cross-contamination during the
    38        preparation of food".  My Lord, on the face of it, those
    39        are inconsistent.
    40
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:  They are different ones.  12 is Preston and
    42        13 Silver Spring which is the typhoid.
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  That it is my fault for not looking.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Or, if I understand it, is certainly Silver
    47        Spring anyway.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  If 13 is Silver Spring, there is not a problem
    50        because, in effect, that is what Mr. Rummel's statement 
    51        already ----- 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Right.   Thinking what your objection might
    54        be, I suppose one could it was not cross-contamination from
    55        one piece of food to another; it is that there is a typhoid
    56        carrier in the source, but that is not a point you take, is
    57        it?
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  Not in the very slightest; it adds nothing to what
    60        we already know.