was revealed yesterday.

Further legal action to overturn a law banning fast food franchises by would-be McDonald's burger barons Grape Bay Ltd. has not been ruled out.

Mark Diel, of law firm Diel & Myers who represented Grape Bay in a losing case before the Privy Council in London, did not dismiss the possibility of more lawsuits.

He said: "My clients are considering the issue at the moment.'' McDonald's burger battle could sizzle on The main movers behind Grape Bay -- former United Bermuda Party Premier Sir John Swan and Government Senate leader Maxwell Burgess -- have consistently declined to comment on the four-year row.

Sir John is off the Island and Mr. Burgess yesterday referred all questions to the Grape Bay legal team.

The five law Lords in London revealed their reasons for rejecting the Grape Bay argument in writing earlier this week.

The judgment knocked back a claim that the firm had been deprived of property by the anti-fast food franchise Prohibited Restaurants Act.

Mr. Diel and partner Ronald Myers argued that was in breach of the Bermuda Constitution, which guaranteed that no one could be deprived of property without compensation.

But The Royal Gazette understands that further Constitutional arguments on separate points -- freedom of association and freedom of expression, also guaranteed in Bermuda -- could be taken to Supreme Court and, in theory, all the way to the Privy Council again.

Mr. Diel added that the landmark case -- and the law Lords' ruling -- had generated enormous interest in international legal circles.

He said: "I expect to see academic articles in specialist legal journals on this.

"We intend to write an article for one of the constitutional law publications ourselves.'' Mr. Diel added that the anti-burger Act upheld by a Court of Appeal judgment, which reversed an earlier Supreme Court decision, included hotels.

And he said that meant that the Prohibited Restaurants Act also had the effect of banning new hotels and forbidding the sale of existing ones.

The judgment -- written by the late Appeal Judge Michael Kempster -- said McDonald's must be considered a restaurant, rejecting arguments by Grape Bay that McDonald's could not be defined as such under a 1961 law.

Mr. Diel said: "I'm surprised that Government hasn't stepped in and amended it so hotels are excluded, particularly in light of the Court of Appeal judgment which has been left unresolved.''