Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 14
1 break off there and resume at two o'clock.
2
3 (Luncheon Adjournment)
4
5 MR. MORRIS: You said in your statement at paragraph 14 that you
6 remember one meeting. Was that at Mr. Coton's request,
7 that meeting?
8 A. My recollection is that it was not at his request.
9
10 Q. You never had a meeting with Ray Coton on his own to
11 discuss the situation?
12 A. I have no recollection of discussing only just the two
13 of us together, no.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you want to ask if Mr. Atherton can
16 remember when the one meeting was, if he can date it or
17 relate it to anything else? Can you help with that,
18 Mr. Atherton?
19 A. I probably could help if I could go through some sort of
20 chronology of these things on something.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: Well -----
23 A. It was obviously before he left, before -----
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you remember -- did you know that he went
26 away on holiday?
27 A. The only reason I know he went away on holiday is the
28 things that I just read before coming here.
29
30 Q. Can you relate it to that?
31 A. It was before -----
32
33 Q. If you cannot, just say so. It is a long time ago.
34 A. Well, knowing that he handed his resignation in on his
35 return from holiday, I could confidently date it to before
36 he went away on holiday that we spoke.
37
38 Q. You cannot say how long before?
39 A. No.
40
41 MR. MORRIS: You say "probable". So, you are not sure?
42 A. Probable -----
43
44 Q. In your statement, you say: "I think it probable this
45 meeting took place before Ray Coton's resignation."
46 A. That is -- yes.
47
48 Q. He did not say at the time that he was leaving?
49 A. Yes. My recollection of -- what I do recollect is,
50 that I have any clarity about, is the discussion we had
51 about his poor performance and him going to do another job,
52 probably because it is not something that happens that
53 often. It is a clear recollection. I can distinctly
54 remember being there and talking to Ray in an amicable way,
55 but being very candid about what he was going to do in the
56 future. He had problems in managing to run the restaurant
57 to both our satisfactions at that time and we were
58 discussing that issue. My recollection is that, you know,
59 the resignation letter was not part of that, and that came
60 later.
