Day 131 - 06 Jun 95 - Page 25

     
     1
     2        I think the answer is, it seems to me, that it does have a
     3        potential relevance.  How much weight it will bear at the
     4        end of the day is completely another matter.
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  Bearing in mind always that the leaflet says
     7        virtually nothing whatever about health and safety, anyway.
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I know.  But I am using Mr. Morris'
    10        objectional query as a platform for a more general
    11        statement.
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:  I am not objecting.  I am just asking for
    14        clarification.  Can we just ask what "afortiori" means?
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  "Even more so".
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I would say this, that if Mr. Morris is
    19        going to be alleging at the end of the case that documents
    20        have been specifically created in order to present a more
         favourable image of the Company for your Lordship's
    22        consumption than would have been the case had this action
    23        not been brought, he had better put it sooner or later to a
    24        McDonald's witness, because at the moment he has made the
    25        accusation in the air without any foundation that I am
    26        aware of.  He had better think pretty hard which witness he
    27        is going to put it to, because we are running out.  Perhaps
    28        Mr. Preston, when he returns, might be a target for that
    29        particular -----
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You may be right, Mr. Rampton.  I think there
    32        are some areas where I am perfectly entitled to envisage,
    33        from the tenor of the whole of the evidence, that if that
    34        were put the answer would be "no", without actually hearing
    35        it from the witness box.  I have to decide whether the
    36        allegation is well made or not.
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  I said what I did for three reasons.  First, the
    39        Defendants have a licence to make wild allegations in
    40        court.  These are two reasons.  First, because there is no
         jury; and, second, because it does not resound, as it
    42        otherwise would, in damages.  The third reason that I said
    43        what I did is this, that the Defendants have habitually
    44        disseminated allegations of this kind via the transcript to
    45        what I might call sympathetic -- small words though they
    46        may be -- sympathetic audiences throughout the world.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not see how an allegation put -----
    49
    50   MR. RAMPTON:  Your Lordship will see in due course. 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not see how that the allegation can 
    53        possibly carry weight with any sensible reader, unless
    54        there is ground for thinking that there is some substance
    55        for it.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  In general, of course, I have kept very quiet.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You are preaching to the converted.  They
    60        will accept whatever they want.