Day 139 - 21 Jun 95 - Page 62
1 A. Not at all; not at all. It did not have any relevance
2 at all.
3
4 Q. And that whether Mr. Miller lived in Puerto Rico or not was
5 irrelevant. That is just completely a line you have made
6 up to justify anti-union behaviour by the Corporation; is
7 it not?
8 A. Absolutely not. You have no idea of what you are
9 talking about and you had better get some real facts. This
10 is throwing around some wild accusations that have
11 absolutely no substance and fact.
12
13 Q. I think people can draw their own conclusions from the
14 facts?
15 A. I think they can very easily
16
17 MR. RAMPTON: I do not believe that Mr. Morris should make
18 speeches to the witness.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: It is not a question of making speeches to the
21 witness.
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: The witness has been accused of lying.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment. The trouble is if you
26 make a comment about what conclusion is to be drawn from
27 the evidence you insight the witness, if he does not agree
28 with you, to make comment of his own and, as I tried to say
29 a moment ago, comment for later to me and I will draw the
30 conclusions from the evidence which I have heard.
31
32 MR. RAMPTON: I would observe this, and I know I keep saying it,
33 but Mr. Morris is very free with his accusations that
34 witnesses are lying, that they have made things up. He has
35 just told Mr. Stein that he made up this story about
36 Mr. Miller's residence being unsatisfactory to McDonald's.
37 It is not altogether surprising, if a man who is an honest
38 witness, if he be, should react strongly; it really is not.
39
40 MR. MORRIS: I am not criticising him from reacting strongly.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The only lesson to be learned from this the
43 future is that if you make a strong comment on the effect
44 of the evidence you must expect strong comment back from
45 the witness box, and neither your strong comment, nor the
46 witness's strong comment, is the least bit helpful to me at
47 this stage. By all means put to the witness if it be your
48 case, although you should not put it, unless you have some
49 real grounds for it, but if you consider you have real
50 grounds for the suggestion then put it to the witness:
51 "That is untrue" but put it as simply as that.
52
53 MR. RAMPTON: That was the other thing I was going to mention my
54 Lord.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Leave it for a moment.
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: May I say this because it will arise in the future
59 and I am concerned about it. If counsel put accusations of
60 dishonesty and lying with the frequency that Mr. Morris
