Day 153 - 12 Jul 95 - Page 28


     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am not sure that I can see the
     3        relevance of this.
     4
     5   MR. MORRIS:   Can you remember roughly?
     6        A.  Not even roughly.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is this directed at, Mr. Morris?
     9
    10   MR. MORRIS:  It is relevant to the effects of the desirability
    11        of a low labour cost.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is completely two-edged, is it not?  It
    14        could show that they have got their labour levels exactly
    15        right, good service, and have therefore brought in a lot of
    16        custom and been, therefore, profitable.  I cannot see that
    17        it leads me one way or the other.  If it is a high profit,
    18        then one might have to look very carefully at the accounts
    19        and go through them line by line to see exactly why that
    20        was; and it is far too late to embark on that now.  So just
    21        having a simple profit level does not help me one bit.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:   On paragraph 26, sewage, I cannot remember if
    24        I asked you, did you ever find out why the drains were
    25        blocked and sewage came back into the store?  You
    26        said -----
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You said something about a grease trap which
    29        got blocked, did you not?
    30        A.  I believe it may well have been the grease trap.  That
    31        would have been the most likely explanation for it.
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:   It says here:  "As mentioned above, I only recall
    34        one time when the drains were blocked and sewage came back
    35        into the store."
    36        A.  That is right.
    37
    38   Q.   You agree with that, yes?
    39        A.  Yes.
    40
    41   Q.   "It may have been a grease trap."  Does that mean that
    42        grease was being poured into the drains?
    43        A.  No.  The grease trap is a system whereby you put
    44        actimatic powder into the grease trap which breaks down the
    45        grease, so that it is easily manageable within a drainage
    46        system.  So by the time it reaches the drains, it is not in
    47        a grease form, if you like; it is in a far more diluted
    48        form.
    49
    50   Q.   But if it got blocked, presumably, it is because it was 
    51        thick rather than liquid? 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, I do not know.
    54
    55   THE WITNESS:   Not necessarily.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is that so -- because I assume that in water
    58        which is going there, a bit of oil gets in ---
    59        A.  Certainly, yes.
    60

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