Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 35
1
2 Q. Did he go?
3 A. No, he refused.
4
5 Q. So what happened to his licence?
6 A. What happened was, if I could back up a little bit? At
7 the time that I went to Puerto Rico, the franchise
8 agreement had been defaulted by McDonald's Corporation a
9 good year and a half, two years, before I got there. It
10 was in the middle of litigation, default litigation. The
11 reason for that was the standards, the quality. You have
12 probably heard it many times -- quality, service and
13 cleanliness standards, the things that are required under
14 the licence agreement were not up to par. The stores were
15 not being operated the way we would want them to operate,
16 so I would say a good year and half, two years before
17 I arrived, we had instituted what is known as default
18 proceedings.
19
20 These are some things that take a long time through a court
21 process to resolve, so that when Don Miller purchased the
22 rights to Puerto Rico, he was purchasing rights of a
23 company that we had, if you will, defaulted and was in the
24 process of defaulting it.
25
26 Fred Turner gave instructions that -- Don Miller had begun
27 to invest a significant amount of money in Puerto Rico, so
28 there had been signs that this was someone who, perhaps, we
29 could work with and to cure the operational problems.
30
31 So, Fred Turner wanted me to impart to him that we were
32 encouraged by that, but insisted upon him moving to Puerto
33 Rico in order to carry out what needed to be carried out.
34 He refused to do so. Fred Turner then instructed me after
35 a period of time -- this happens over a period of time --
36 not to provide any further assistance to Don Miller as we
37 would continue to pursue our default proceedings.
38
39 Q. What happened to Mr. Miller in the end, so far as
40 McDonald's are concerned?
41 A. After I was -- I no longer visited there. There was
42 reconciliation between Don Miller and the union via the
43 NLRB process, and his operation continued for several
44 months after that, four to six months.
45
46 Q. Are we out of 1974 by now?
47 A. Yes, I would say that we are in 1975 or close to 1975,
48 but I would say it is probably around 1975. Then for
49 financial reasons he closed the stores.
50
51 Q. Did McDonald's subsequently open up stores in Puerto Rico?
52 A. In 1980, in San Juan, there was -- just clarification
53 -- there was one store that continued to remain open. It
54 was in Ponsai which is on the other side away from San
55 Juan. It is an hour or two away.
56
57 Q. Is that something to do with this?
58 A. No, it has nothing to do, Pansai has nothing to do.
59
60 Q. You subsequently opened up again in San Juan?
