Day 243 - 02 May 96 - Page 32

     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I find it very difficult to give a safe
     2        answer to that which will cover all kinds of documents and
     3        I think what you have to do is to make a list at least by
     4        classes of these things.  For instance, if you say
     5        McDonald's documents setting out the contents of various
     6        food products and so on, and any other kind of document you
     7        have in mind, I do not think I can just say because it is a
     8        document produced by McDonald's it proves that item in it.
     9
    10   MS. STEEL:  That it could be treated as an admission.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Maybe it can, maybe it cannot.  I really do
    13        not think I can give a safe general answer to that.  One
    14        would have to look at the document in its provenance and
    15        decide on it.
    16
    17   MS. STEEL:  Does that apply if it is a document that has been
    18        put to a witness and they have either confirmed it or
    19        commented on it?
    20
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Again it depends the terms in which they have
    22        confirmed it.  If that is that a document which has been
    23        put out to customers to take copies of if they visit one of
    24        McDonald's stores or restaurants, one would have to look at
    25        it and decide on that and the answer might be different to
    26        if a witness from McDonald's who is entitled to give the
    27        answer is asked to look at something said in McDonald's
    28        documents and says, "Yes, that is true.  That is so",
    29        because he has then adopted what is said in the document as
    30        his own evidence in the witness box.  But I cannot give you
    31        a safe answer which covers all documents.
    32
    33   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, if the Defendants look carefully at their
    34        list, and at the documents which are named in the list, the
    35        descriptions are all taken from the trial bundles.  They
    36        have all been -- although it does not show itself on the
    37        sheet of paper -- when we did it each case related to, in
    38        our minds, an issue and to the evidence of a particular
    39        witness.  It is a bit laborious but it is not difficult.
    40
         If the Defendants look at the list and at the documents
    42        they will find, for example, that a lot of them are in fact
    43        McDonald's documents and that a lot of them have actually
    44        been verified, or whatever the correct word is, in the
    45        evidence of a witness, by you do have to do it on a case by
    46        case basis; there is no short cut.  It look us a long time
    47        but it is mechanical really.
    48
    49   MS. STEEL:  I think that is the problem.  We can try and do our
    50        best but, so far as I can see, there is absolutely masses 
    51        of things to go through and we have got all sorts of other 
    52        matters to sort out in that week as well. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That may be but I have said, "At any stage
    55        after the legal vacation" to try and help you on that.  All
    56        I can do is warn you that there may be a possible problem.
    57        If you cannot deal with it, then you cannot but you take
    58        the risk of finding out too late to do something about it
    59        that you have made a false assumption as to its evidential
    60        value.  That is the only point I am making.   The rest is