Day 168 - 03 Oct 95 - Page 28


     
     1        break, they effectively get more pay that day?
     2        A.  That is correct.
     3
     4   Q.   So, is it true in 1991 or 1992 you adjusted people's hours
     5        at the end of the evening and were laughing about how you
     6        were doing this randomly to reduce the labour percentage?
     7
     8   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord.
     9
    10   THE WITNESS:  No, it is not true at all.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  The witness has answered the question.  The
    13        question should never have been asked.  In contrast,
    14        probably it was the questions which were asked previously,
    15        which I assume go only to credit.  That question does seem
    16        to me to go directly to the issue and I find nothing in
    17        Mr. Logan's statement about it.  I ask, why not, because it
    18        is quite clear that Mr. Morris has been in very
    19        considerable contact with Mr. Logan.
    20
    21        I was going to say (and I will say it now) that I suspect
    22        strongly that that business about the so-called fights had
    23        been deliberately suppressed and it is quite clear that
    24        this has been, so as to try to take the witness by surprise
    25        which is not the way business in these courts is done.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Sit down, please, Mr. Richards.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  It has not been deliberately suppressed.  I have a
    30        mass of information about responding to -- Sean Richards
    31        has responded to what Michael Logan has said.  Michael
    32        Logan told me the night before, as I was asked to contact
    33        him and get some names, I did a list of names which I wrote
    34        out, and he has given me a lot of information in response
    35        to what Sean Richards has said.  Sean Richards has made a
    36        number of denials about the practices that are going on and
    37        I am testing them.  That is all.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Has any notice of this been given to
    40        McDonald's?
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  No.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  I cannot give notice of everything that a witness
    45        tells me on the night before questioning one of McDonald's
    46        witnesses, saying:  "Put to him this and put to him that,
    47        and say:  'What about such and such?'"
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We must grapple with this problem because
    50        over two years ago now orders were made about the 
    51        disclosure of the evidence of witnesses.  It is a problem 
    52        which potentially or in reality has reared its head from 
    53        time to time.  The whole idea of it is that each side
    54        should know the other side's case in advance.  We have had
    55        supplemental statements and supplemental supplemental
    56        statements, some very late in the day.  But what we cannot
    57        have are allegations which might be directly relevant, not
    58        just going to credit, just coming out for the first time in
    59        cross-examination.  It is not an answer to say:  "Well, we
    60        are representing ourselves".  I have to make allowances for

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