Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 02

     
      1                                           October 3rd, 1994.
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  Before the defendants call any evidence there are
     4        some matters I wish to mention to your Lordship.  I hope
     5        that your Lordship has had a copy of Mr. Atkinson's
     6        skeleton argument.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  That is, perhaps, something to be left until
    11        later to be dealt with.  It does not affect, I do not
    12        think, either of the gentlemen to be called in the next
    13        two days.  I hope your Lordship has had a copy of a
    14        proposed amended statement of claim which was delivered to
    15        court, I think, last Thursday?
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  What it does in two areas is, I hope, to bring
    20        the pleading into line with the way in which we have
    21        approached the meaning of the pamphlet and, therefore, the
    22        issues in the case, both in opening the case and in our
    23        evidence, than the pleading originally represented.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just look at it.
    26
    27   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, the first meaning to be changed is on
    28        page 13.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    31
    32   MR. RAMPTON:  Which I hope more precisely reflects the meaning
    33        of the pamphlet as we see it and as we presented it to
    34        your Lordship in this court since the end of June.  The
    35        other change, again having regard to the way in which I
    36        opened this case and the way in which I have dealt with it
    37        in the limited amount of evidence you have had on the
    38        topic, is on page 14 meaning "L" to do with animal
    39        welfare.
    40
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:  All we have tried to do there is to follow more
    44        closely both what we see as being advice of the pamphlet
    45        and what we see as being our room for complaint.  We have
    46        conceded, as your Lordship will remember, in opening that
    47        it is obviously a matter of opinion whether the slaughter
    48        of animals for human consumption might be regarded as
    49        inhumane or might properly or fairly be called torture and
    50        so on and so forth.  What we are concerned about are the 
    51        misdescriptions, as we see them, of fact that the leaflet 
    52        contains.  That is what that is intended to reflect.  My 
    53        Lord, there is another rather more serious matter to which
    54        I wish to return in a moment.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me ask about the application to amend
    57        the statement of claim.  You can say you do not mind it
    58        being amended; you can say you object to it being amended;
    59        you can say that you would like time to think about it.
    60        If there is any argument about it I will hear the argument