Day 101 - 10 Mar 95 - Page 22

     
     1        A.  Never.
     2
     3   Q.
     4   MS. STEEL:  I have a letter which I wanted to put to the witness
     5        which is about the Isle of Wight thing.  I am sorry.  It is
     6        quite short.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you need the letter to put it?  Show it to
     9        Mr. Rampton first of all.
    10
    11   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, I am unhappy at the late disclosure of a
    12        document of that kind which is plainly an original
    13        document, to say the least.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just let me read it.  Yes, unhappy you may
    16        well be, Mr. Rampton, but is there, in fact, any objection
    17        to its use?
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  It is only this, that now for the first time I see
    20        the letter, I see there is an addressee at the top of the
         letter, I note that the person there referred to is not one
    22        of the Defendants' witnesses.
    23
    24        I really wonder whether it is right that any reference to
    25        that letter, whether the identity of the person or
    26        otherwise, should be made in open court without my having
    27        had a chance (which, obviously, I have not had) to go into
    28        the matter, if I should wish to do so, both by means of
    29        enquiries beforehand and by means, if appropriate, of
    30        examination in-chief.  I just do not know anything about
    31        it.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, but I do not think, despite the
    34        argument, there is any harm in saying that it appears
    35        someone wrote in early 1989 to McDonald's about a complaint
    36        of family illness which they appeared to attribute to
    37        McDonald's, McDonald's looked into it, if the letter,
    38        guided entirely by the letter, concluded that the family's
    39        purchase from McDonald's was not the likely cause of the
    40        illness.
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  I agree with that, my Lord, though as a matter of
    43        principle your Lordship did say the other day there might
    44        come a time fairly shortly when people who, on either side,
    45        produce documents at the last minute in the course of
    46        cross-examination, however important it might be thought
    47        they were, would not be allowed to use them.  What I do ask
    48        is that your Lordship should enquire of the Defendants how
    49        long they have had that letter.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You were about to tell me, I think, what 
    52        happened? 
    53
    54   MS. STEEL:  Yes, I was going to explain.  The woman whose name
    55        is on that letter wrote to us quite sometime ago.  We asked
    56        her for more information and she sent that.  We then were
    57        trying to get a statement.  She moved house and there were
    58        just a lot of problems with trying to get hold of her and
    59        get a statement.  Basically, it got put in a pile of paper
    60        work of things to be done and was forgotten about.