Day 200 - 12 Dec 95 - Page 13

     
     1        meaning, your Lordship says:  "I find that the leaflet
     2        bears the meaning", then the meaning is set out.  Then from
     3        there on under the meaning from the words, "In my judgment,
     4        this meaning" through to the end of the judgment.  There is
     5        also another passage two pages before the meaning in a
     6        paragraph beginning, "In my judgment, such a
     7        reader".  I say this for the transcript, it is page 24 at
     8        letter B of the official transcript.  The relevant passage
     9        there is really the last sentence of that paragraph
    10        beginning, "Alleged connections", and ending "Occasional
    11        meal".
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I will come back at 12.00 or a minute
    14        or two thereafter.
    15
    16                            (Short Adjournment)
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, before I return to the actual meaning,
    19        may I add a word about the beneficial difference which we
    20        see that your Lordship is now in as compared with the
         ordinary case ---
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  -- where the meaning is not decided by the jury
    26        until the end of the case.  In the ordinary case, the only
    27        evidence which is excluded in relation to justification is
    28        evidence which is apt to prove or, indeed, disprove a
    29        meaning of which the words complained of are incapable.  So
    30        that one will, as one has on other issues in this case,
    31        have a lot of evidence, as we did on nutrition before your
    32        Lordship's ruling, which may turn out at the end of the
    33        case to be irrelevant because it does not, in fact, go to
    34        justify the actual meaning of the words complained of.
    35        Here we are now at a stage where your Lordship has found as
    36        a fact what the words do mean in this respect.  That, as
    37        I say, is to be found on page 26.  I do not know what your
    38        Lordship's page is.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is the same.
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  At letter A at the top of the page.  As I think
    43        I said a moment ago, it really falls into two parts.  The
    44        first part down to the first semicolon is an allegation
    45        descriptive of the supposed quality or characteristics of
    46        the food itself.  It is an allegation that the food is very
    47        unhealthy, and then it gives two reasons why, according to
    48        the leaflet, that is so:  First, because simpliciter it is
    49        high in fat, etc., and low in fibre etc. and, secondly
    50         ----- 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There was hardly any evidence, as I recall, 
    53        if indeed any at all, about vitamins and minerals.
    54
    55   MR. RAMPTON:  None, although there is some information about
    56        that in the literature itself.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That does not tell me whether it is low, high
    59        or middling.
    60