Day 083 - 06 Feb 95 - Page 27
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2 MR. MORRIS: I think whatever the legal argument -- maybe we
3 could have the argument on the authorities another time.
4 I am not sure, in reality, what the best course for us to
5 take on that is, but certainly Mr. Rampton helpfully read
6 through the contractual obligations of their suppliers
7 which seem to be, if you like, the main area that was open
8 to question. What, in fact, is the obligation
9 contractually of the suppliers? Our submission would be
10 that the contracts that he went through are absolutely
11 clear, that all the relevant documents should be available
12 for inspection by McDonald's.
13
14 If you recall, the key pages seem to be tab 1, page 33,
15 which was a very good summary which included the Black
16 Book: "Supplier shall provide McDonald's Quality Assurance
17 Department", so that on top of inspection there was also
18 supplying documents. But in this case I think the
19 important thing is the availability for inspection. There
20 is absolutely no qualification of that in terms of "only
21 for the purposes of the business and not for any other
22 matters", such as a court case whatever. It seems to
23 be -----
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25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, you see, in relation to page 33, the
26 point Mr. Rampton was taking, or one of them, if
27 I understood him correctly, is that the Black Book has to
28 be available for inspection at each production location,
29 which does not mean that McDonald's have the power to say:
30 "You must give me a copy which I can take away"; whereas
31 the second paragraph provides for information which must be
32 provided in writing and anything which has come as a result
33 of that is in McDonald's possession or has been, and
34 I suppose you might argue: "Well, if they must provide the
35 information in writing, that means that McDonald's can call
36 for a letter", then the argument comes in whether they can
37 call for it for the purposes of this litigation as opposed
38 to making quality assurance checks.
39
40 But I think that is the only paragraph -- I may be wrong --
41 which says that the supplier has to actually provide
42 McDonald's with something on a bit of paper going into
43 their possession. You see the possible distinction?
44
45 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I just noticed by the way on page 23 almost
46 the exact same wording as on page 33 in their specification
47 dated 1975, revised 1987. So it seems that is a standard
48 kind of position. It is point 3 on that page.
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50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. But, you see, that may be thought to be
51 the tip of the iceberg, from your point of view, because
52 there are all sorts of other documents which you have
53 indicated you would like to see which would not fall within
54 those categories of information which must be provided in
55 writing pursuant to the specification.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I mean, our basic position on the contracts
58 would be the contracts, when they say "make available for
59 inspection" and the Black Book and files that have been
60 mentioned, the evidence that has been given in this court
