Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 02
1 Thursday, 7th November 1996
2
3 MS. STEEL: I wanted to apologise for switching subjects,
4 only -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It has not inconvenienced me, and I do not
7 suppose it has affected Mr. Rampton.
8
9 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord.
10
11 MS. STEEL: Neither of them were completely ready, but the
12 nutrition submission was at a more advanced stage than the
13 advertising one, so I thought it was probably a more useful
14 use of time to get on with that.
15
16 Before I start, I wanted to know whether it would be
17 possible to clarify which letters, which of the pleaded
18 meanings, pleaded defamatory meanings by the Plaintiffs --
19 sorry, which of the Plaintiffs' pleaded defamatory meanings
20 have now been withdrawn or become obsolete, or whatever,
21 and therefore do not need to be addressed in relation to
22 this issue.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: 'G' has gone and Mr. Rampton said he did not
25 think that 'H' added anything now that he had re-pleaded
26 'F'. But then I held the meaning to be what I said on,
27 I think it was, 25th November last year. What is troubling
28 you, if anything, about that?
29
30 MS. STEEL: I just find it a bit confusing not knowing, you
31 know, which ones are still standing. For example, with
32 'G', that is helpful, that has been deleted, wiped from
33 the Statement of Claim.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: None of them are standing any longer,
36 because the pleadings just set out the contention of the
37 party who has pleaded it, hopefully with a view to seeing
38 what issue there is between the Plaintiffs in this case and
39 yourself and Mr. Morris on meaning, and in the normal
40 situation you will be looking at what the Plaintiffs have
41 pleaded now, because you would not know what I was going to
42 make of it. But the situation is different now, because
43 I have held what the meaning is, and it is the meaning as
44 I have found it which you have to address, not the meaning
45 which was pleaded.
46
47 You may have some comment to make about the meaning which
48 is pleaded. You may have a comment, in case it helps me,
49 that McDonald's went into this part of the case because
50 they were saying that it meant that McDonald's food causes
51 cancer, when in fact it does not mean that.
52
53 MS. STEEL: Right.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you see what I mean?
56
57 MS. STEEL: Yes.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There may be comments like that to make.
60 What, at the end of the day, you have to address is not the
