Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 38


     
     1        doing it in those countries is because there is no pressure
     2        being put on your Corporation to stop doing it in those
     3        countries, so you can get away with it?
     4        A.  I do not accept that.  You are -- the way you phrase
     5        that question suggests that we operate in an irresponsible
     6        fashion, and that is not the case.  I think we want to do
     7        the responsible thing, wherever we operate, in whatever
     8        country we are present.  I am not immediately conversant on
     9        what kind of communication members of management have had
    10        with the appropriate people in Turkey or the Philippines.
    11        I do not know what communication advice was given our
    12        managing directors in those two countries, but, based on my
    13        knowledge of our operating philosophy and our ways of doing
    14        business, I would certainly think that we would want to do
    15        the responsible thing and have had communication with them
    16        to phase out of the use of those packages, vehicles as soon
    17        as possible.  That is my general sense of how we would
    18        handle that matter.  But I do not know specifically what
    19        direction, communication, advice we would have given the
    20        heads of those countries.  They make the decision, the
    21        final decision, as to what packaging would be used in those
    22        countries.
    23
    24   Q.   When you say "as soon possible", that could be 10 years, 15
    25        years?
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you know Mr. Beavers?
    28        A.  I do not know, my Lord.  Again, I would -----
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We have had quite a lot of evidence on this.
    31        You can mount an argument, in so far as you feel able, when
    32        you have reflected on the evidence that McDonald's
    33        withdrawal from CFCs and then HCFCs was not carried out
    34        responsibly so far as speed and extent was concerned.
    35        Mr. Beavers clearly cannot advance the matter.
    36
    37   THE WITNESS:  My Lord, I would say this.  I gave you a general
    38        response to your question.  As time goes on we continue to
    39        try to fine-tune our system, to improve upon our packaging,
    40        to improve upon our products, to bring better value, better
    41        service to the marketplace, and as we become aware of
    42        certain problems with some of our products or packages,
    43        packaging, we will address those situations.  As we learn
    44        more about the products, we use, we reflect on that
    45        knowledge and do the responsible thing.
    46
    47        We are constantly trying to update and improve our system.
    48        We get information and knowledge from the suppliers that we
    49        use from the research community, from our own internal
    50        experience and research, and we try to reflect the benefit 
    51        of that knowledge in the delivery of products to the system 
    52        and the quality of the vehicles in which those products are 
    53        served.  So I think then in that regard -----
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just leave it there, Mr. Beavers.  If you do
    56        not know about HCFCs, quite frankly, it is for me to judge
    57        whether your Corporation is dealing in a responsible way
    58        with regard to it on the evidence.  It is not for me to
    59        advise a witness, but I think it is as well for the course
    60        of this litigation if one does not express general opinions

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