Day 069 - 19 Dec 94 - Page 02

     
     1                                      Monday, 19th December, 1994
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, before we begin, there are two things I
     4        would like to mention.  The first is that, in the last
     5        couple of days, in response to the Defendants' requests,
     6        Dr. Gomez Gonzalez or, rather, actually not him, but
     7        Mr. Weidenfeld, has managed to obtain from the United
     8        States from McDonald's suppliers a number of documents
     9        relating to the US Corporation's animal welfare policy.
    10        One is an actual written policy which came from a supplier
    11        called Pabst; the other is a document which came from
    12        another meat producer, not a processor, called Montfort.
    13        Then there is a document prepared by the American Meat
    14        Association with the University of Colorado.  Then there
    15        are some Tyson documents about how to treat broiler
    16        chickens.  My Lord, I can hand those in now, if I may?
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Have Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris seen these?
    19
    20   MR. RAMPTON:  No.  I got them myself this morning.  They have
    21        now been copied, and I have just handed them over.
    22
    23   MS. STEEL:  Given that we requested documents on animal welfare
    24        over a year ago now, I would like to know why the
    25        Plaintiffs have taken so long to get hold of these.
    26        Obviously, there are occasions when extra documents do turn
    27        up, but the Plaintiffs claimed last year that they had made
    28        efforts to get every document available to them.  The
    29        amount of documents that have been produced by them during
    30        this trial indicates that they did not really make full
    31        efforts.  I feel, particularly in relation to future
    32        issues, they should have a search now, rather than keep
    33        producing them while the witness is in the box.
    34
    35   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I cannot say why these were not
    36        discovered beforehand; some of them, plainly, because they
    37        are simply suppliers' documents, and they are not
    38        McDonald's documents at all.  The McDonald's Humane
    39        Treatment of Animals statement did not come from McDonald's
    40        offices; it came from the supplier Pabst.  I assume the
         reason that it was not found at McDonald's is because there
    42        is not a copy actually at McDonald's in Chicago.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  The fact is that it has been thought
    45        fit to manage to get hold of them now.
    46
    47   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We have had discussion in the past (as
    50        everyone is well aware) as to whether McDonald's actually 
    51        have documents in their custody, power or control, when 
    52        they may be with suppliers or people with whom they have 
    53        some working connection, and I reached a view as to whether
    54        I could order disclosure of those.
    55
    56        It is not very satisfactory if a technically correct stand
    57        is taken about that but then, when a particular topic comes
    58        under the microscope, it is found that McDonald's do have
    59        the effective power -- whether or not they have the legal
    60        power -- to get hold of documents which turn out to be