Day 161 - 24 Jul 95 - Page 19


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That may be so.
     2
     3   MISS STEEL:  Yes.  I was going to carry on to say, there have
     4        been a number of addresses of stores given in the case so
     5        far, and I have not heard any allegations that anything has
     6        happened to any of them.  It is certainly not our intention
     7        to spread them around with the hope that anything happens
     8        to them.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But the first question is why you need to
    11        know it; and, secondly, if you do need to know it, why it
    12        need be actually spoken to in open court.
    13
    14   MISS STEEL:  She was put forward as a witness by the Plaintiffs,
    15        and I believe on that basis alone we would be entitled to
    16        ask questions ---
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, that is not so.  You must have a
    19        specific -----
    20
    21   MISS STEEL:  -- about her experience.  Well, she has talked
    22        about how she enjoys working for McDonald's and she likes
    23        being a franchisee, and things like that.  I believe that
    24        we should be entitled to test that.  It may also be that
    25        she is running a store which has come up previously in this
    26        case, and she may be able to give relevant evidence on that
    27        matter; or that there are bad practices going on at that
    28        store which the Plaintiffs want to keep under wraps.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think you need put it as strongly as
    31        that.  What you might say is that you might want to make
    32        some enquiries about the store and the way it is run.
    33
    34   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I would, with respect, object to that,
    35        because if it is not a store which has any relevance to
    36        this case during the currency of Miss Anteneh's
    37        franchisee -- since 1993, in other words -- there is
    38        nothing to justify general enquiries about that store which
    39        could not be characterised as fishing, because it would
    40        have to be a pleaded allegation; and there is not one.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is the objection to the name of the
    43        identity of a store being written down?
    44
    45   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not have an objection to that.  I just do not
    46        want it -- it is the witness's anxiety.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just ask a bit about that.
    49
    50        (To the witness)  Miss Anteneh, what you spoke to happened 
    51        some 16 or 17 months ago now.  Has there been any trouble 
    52        since? 
    53        A.  No, there has not.
    54
    55   Q.   That was just a single incident, was it?  I say "just".  It
    56        was a single incident?
    57        A.  That is correct.
    58
    59   Q.   Do you have any real reluctance about identifying the store
    60        now, taking a reasonably robust approach to the problem?

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