Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 28


     
     1        is that McDonald's will expect to have a copy of any
     2        document they wish from their suppliers.  That is not just
     3        an oral thing, but it is also in their contracts about
     4        making "available for inspection".  The obvious thing is
     5        that "inspection" means also a right to have a copy of any
     6        document.
     7
     8        Obviously, they do not want the suppliers to send them a
     9        copy of every document they have in their possession, so
    10        they only ask specifically that they will provide regularly
    11        some kind of summary of what is going on.  But it does not
    12        mean to say that they do not have the right to have any
    13        document in the possession of the suppliers.  There is no
    14        contractual restriction of that right, except for this
    15        class of documents or except only for business rather than
    16        disclosure in a court case or whatever.
    17
    18        So, I would say that whatever the law is on the
    19        authorities, the case for the Plaintiffs is that -- I think
    20        that Mr. Rampton was clutching at straws really with the
    21        contracts because the contracts are pretty clear, in my
    22        opinion.  He grasped at the word "confidential", if I can
    23        find that?  I think it was page 11.  I am not sure.  Is it
    24        on page 33?  Page 20, confidential; it was the second
    25        paragraph on page 20.  Do you have page 20 in front of
    26        you?
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:  Mr. Rampton homed in on the word "confidential" on
    31        page 20 in the second paragraph, second to last line.
    32        I think he homed in on that quite desperately because it is
    33        quite clear what the contracts mean in terms of access to
    34        documents.  But he seemed to raise some kind of meaning of
    35        the word "confidential" which to me it can only mean
    36        confidential to McDonald's, i.e. it will be in a file that
    37        other clients of those suppliers would not have access to.
    38        It is quite clear that it is a file that is confidential to
    39        McDonald's.  So, they can be reassured that McDonald's will
    40        only have access to that file rather than anybody else.
    41
    42        I cannot see it could have any other meaning apart from
    43        that.  It certainly could not have the meaning that
    44        Mr. Rampton said which was somehow confidential would mean
    45        it would be secret and that McDonald's would not have
    46        access to it, which would be, what is the point of them
    47        stipulating that in that case in their contractual
    48        agreement?
    49
    50        So, we would say the Plaintiffs have access which includes 
    51        copies of any documents in the possession of their 
    52        suppliers;  if they have that relationship with their 
    53        suppliers, they certainly have that relationship to their
    54        subsidiaries; that all the evidence that has been heard in
    55        this case and all the documents that we have seen
    56        McDonald's pride themselves on 100 per cent access to
    57        information from their subsidiaries.  I am talking about
    58        McDonald's sections outside the UK which come under the
    59        umbrella of the Corporation.  Because they choose to use
    60        various terms such as "McDonald's family", or whatever,

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