Day 163 - 25 Sep 95 - Page 43


     
     1        moved in pretty quickly and made sure that it never
     2        happened again; the original violations having been
     3        committed by a franchisee.
     4
     5        My Lord, it is important because in this particular example
     6        Mr. Morris having, as we now look back at the transcript,
     7        so he said, received that sheaf of documents five or six
     8        days before Mr. Stein was cross-examined, did put them to
     9        Mr. Stein in cross-examination.  In every case that was
    10        put, Mr. Stein said he did not know a thing about it.
    11
    12        So again, my Lord, the same problem arises as arose in
    13        relation to the Store Hygiene allegations.  Mr. Stein
    14        obviously not being a fertile source of information about
    15        these alleged incidents, we have to go back to America.  It
    16        may be that we shall have to go to somebody different for
    17        every one of these allegations, because they come from
    18        different dates and different parts of the country.  Some
    19        may turn out to be Company owned restaurants, some may turn
    20        out to be franchised restaurants.  So different people at
    21        the Corporation may turn out to have dealt with them.
    22
    23        Then one asks, really, again for what assistance to your
    24        Lordship in the eventual obtaining of a just resolution of
    25        the employment issue?  It has always been McDonald's
    26        position in this case from the beginning -- I think I may
    27        have opened it in this way and certainly senior McDonald's
    28        witnesses have repeatedly said so from the witness box --
    29        that largely for the reason that McDonald's is an
    30        organisation heavily dependent upon large numbers of people
    31        both in the crew and management level, errors will occur,
    32        people will make mistakes, people will actually do
    33        deliberate wrong things in breach of the law.
    34
    35        Given the size of the Company, the extent of its operation
    36        and the time for which it has been in existence throughout
    37        the whole world, it would simply not be credible if such
    38        things did not happen or McDonald's said they did not
    39        happen.
    40
    41        That being so, at this stage in the case, at least, I do
    42        invite your Lordship to ask the question:  Is it fair to
    43        put the Plaintiffs to the trouble and expense of
    44        investigating every single one of these 12, is it,
    45        allegations, and having to make the decision whether to
    46        obtain the evidence and the documents and bring them to
    47        court to contest the issue.
    48
    49        If it did turn out like that, and they have decided that it
    50        was not right because the allegations were false, so far as 
    51        McDonald's are concerned, the Plaintiffs in this case, it 
    52        was not right to allow these allegations to go uncontested, 
    53        I can well imagine that we are again adding another month,
    54        six weeks or so to the length of this case.  I am not
    55        trying to exaggerate for this reason -----
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can I think that through a moment?
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    60

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