Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 27


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The way it is set out, it looks as if one is
     2        the more frequent.
     3
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  One would suspect from the nature of the
     5        occupation that that is probably right.  Also, when one
     6        looks at severity, one would suspect that burns are
     7        probably, apart from the odd break, the most serious.
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  In order to have a league table like this --
    10        because they are initially set out in rankings by frequency
    11        in relation to each section, and then they are ranked by
    12        severity, and not necessarily in the same order, though
    13        I notice that with the first one or two they, by and large,
    14        are more severe as they are more frequent.  But this must
    15        have come from somewhere, must it not?  There must be a
    16        hard copy analysis, I would have thought, from which
    17        someone has made this final, simple analysis.
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  It may be that there is; it may be that there is
    20        not.  I cannot answer that.  We can certainly find out
    21        about that.  I am not anxious not to produce American
    22        statistics in any sense at all.
    23
    24   MR. MORRIS:  I am talking about UK.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  We are talking about both.  But let
    27        Mr. Rampton develop this issue.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  I am not anxious not to produce US or UK accident
    30        statistics.  I repeat what I said before -- indeed, I think
    31        what I said when I opened this case -- namely, that in a
    32        business of this kind it is regrettable but inevitable that
    33        accidents will happen.  It is for that reason that I say
    34        I do not regard this as one of leading issues in the case.
    35
    36        What is much more important, in our submission -- and I do
    37        have a reason for saying all this -- is what steps
    38        McDonald's take, as responsible employers, to keep
    39        accidents to a minimum.
    40
    41        Your Lordship will remember that when originally this
    42        question arose, your Lordship was disinclined to order any
    43        statistics at all and was originally inclined to throw the
    44        Defendants back on the evidence that they, themselves, were
    45        able to introduce which, as your Lordship will recall, is
    46        pretty flimsy.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I have to say that the germ of a change
    49        of heart came when you said, "All they have been able to
    50        throw up was X numbers", in your opening. 
    51 
    52   MR. RAMPTON:  I take the blame.  But what, in my submission, 
    53        would not be right is for your Lordship to compel the
    54        Plaintiffs to spend a large amount of time and money --
    55        this was certainly your Lordship's indication on the last
    56        occasion this was discussed -- producing a summary, or
    57        whatever, or, indeed, the documents themselves (if they
    58        exist) for an issue which, for the reasons perhaps that
    59        I have outlined, does not take a place in the forefront of
    60        this case.

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