Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 52


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I appreciate that, but I am sure you will
     2        remember what the main thrust of your case is; in effect,
     3        this was endemic in Colchester because of the pressure to
     4        meet targets.  That is, as I understand it, your case.
     5        Then what I will have to ask myself is, was Colchester a
     6        rogue store in this respect, either because Mr. Coton is a
     7        rogue manager and/or because Mr. Davis and Mr. Coton were
     8        rogue managers.
     9
    10   MS. STEEL:   Or that Mr. Skehel knew about it as well.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I thought that really the main thrust of your
    13        case was that it was endemic in Colchester.
    14
    15   MS. STEEL:   It was a continuous process.  It is just a
    16        particular point that Mr. Rampton said, that he authorised
    17        that specific incident.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think the point basically is this, however
    20        Mr. Rampton has expressed, it is really what I was hinting
    21        at yesterday, I am not going to stifle your
    22        cross-examination of Mr. Skehel, because I have tried to
    23        summarise what I thought the importance of his evidence was
    24        this morning, but a lot of the detail about why there
    25        should be a fall out between Mr. Skehel and Mr. Coton if
    26        there was one is rather on the sidelines of the main
    27        issues, as I see it.
    28
    29   MS. STEEL:  I mean, I do not think I have asked any questions
    30        about why there should be a fall out.  I was concentrating
    31        on -- I mean, if the Plaintiffs are coming to court, which
    32        they are, to say that Ray Coton is a rogue Manager and they
    33        are trying to discredit him, the only real way that we have
    34        to defend Mr. Coton and to say that this was a widely
    35        condoned practice is to discredit the witnesses by saying,
    36         "You knew about this; you knew it was going on, and this
    37        is just a personal axe that you have to grind with
    38        Mr. Coton".
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, you have put that, have you not?
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:   Yes, I sat down and Mr. Morris was moving on.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Very well.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  It is difficult because ------
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can I say this, I appreciate the question of
    49        being loyal to your witness.  It is only human nature; if
    50        someone on the other side has a dig at your witness, you 
    51        want to have a dig back.  But, having done your duty by 
    52        your own witness, so far as that is concerned, keep a broad 
    53        perspective in mind that nothing would suit your case more
    54        than, in a way, Ray Coton was doing it on a large scale,
    55        but you would say not because he is a fundamentally flawed
    56        person, because of the pressures which were put on with
    57        regards to targets and percentages and so on.
    58
    59   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  OK.
    60

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