THE CASE continues . . . and continues . . . and continues. Today is the second anniversary of the longest civil action in British legal history.
The trial, now being heard before Mr Justice Bell in Court 35 at the Royal Courts of Justice, is officially listed as Case number 93/NJ/1436, McDonald's Corporation & Another v Steel & Another, Part Heard.
After 270 days, it has a strong claim to being called the most expensive and most disastrous public relations exercise ever mounted by a multinational company.
When the case was first listed, it was expected to last about three weeks. But 124 witnesses have been called so far, and another 10 are waiting for their turn on the stand. The trial is said to be likely to cost the McDonald's hamburger chain more than £10 million.
McDonald's is a $26 billion-a-year corporation. The alleged libel-mongers - Helen Steel, 30, and Dave Morris, 42, - are unemployed environmental protesters, who claim that their joint incomes amount to less than £7,000-a-year.
McDonald's is represented by Richard Rampton, QC, and a team of the most expensive libel lawyers in the profession. Ms Steel, a former barmaid and gardener, and Mr Morris, an ex-postman and single parent, are representing themselves.
The action began after London Greenpeace, to which Ms Steel and Mr Morris are said to have belonged, was alleged to have published and distributed a leaflet in the mid-1980s, called: "What's Wrong With McDonald's. Everything They Don't Want You to Know."
It said that McDonald's sold the sort of food that was linked to cancer and heart disease, that the company caused litter and that it exploited children, the Third World and its own staff.
McDonald's was also said to have conspired in the destruction of rain-forests.
The embarrassment for McDonald's is that, instead of capitulating under its might, Ms Steel and Mr Morris chose to try to justify every one of the allegations in the leaflet.
It must surely be fair to guess that McDonald's is longing for the trial to end. Meanwhile, six or seven hours a day, five days a week, the case continues . . .
