Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 16


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS: It is just I do not want to waste time getting out
     3        those documents.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not sure it would be a productive
     6        exercise anyway with Mr. Preston.
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:  Right.  It is a useful question.  I mean do you
     9        find that research or reports prepared by the Company which
    10        do not accord with your public image which the Company is
    11        putting over is somehow getting buried or forgotten about?
    12        A.  You----
    13
    14   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I do not believe that that is a fair
    15        question.  I think if that question is based on the
    16        document which I think it is based on, then Mr. Preston has
    17        to be told what the document is and I know what it is.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think that is probably not necessary,
    20        because I think the question put to Mr. Preston really
    21        amounts to this:  Does he get to hear the bad, if there is
    22        any, as well as the good about his own company?  That is
    23        what you really putting, is it not?
    24        A.  Your Lordship, I do.  I think one of the documents that
    25        the Defendants asked me about just a few moment ago as to
    26        culture, what was printed and published and circulated
    27        internally, shows just how open we are as an institution in
    28        sharing with our employees that which has been said about
    29        themselves, management, ourselves.  I mean, you cannot get
    30        much more open than putting it in your internal house
    31        organ.  I am willing to wear the good, the bad and the
    32        ugly.
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  The report that was done following the death by
    35        electrocution of Mark Hopkins in a Manchester store in
    36        1992, McDonald's did its own detailed report of that
    37        incident, did they not?
    38        A.  We did, yes.
    39
    40   Q.   Yes, and we only got that document just before Jill Barnes
    41        came into the witness box and she accepted the findings of
    42        that document which were very critical of the company, were
    43        they not?.  Do you remember?
    44        A.  I am sorry, I do not know the details of the document
    45        you are specifically speaking about.
    46
    47   Q.   Right, but you remember there was a report, an official
    48        company report?  We can dig it up if you would like?
    49        A.  Are you saying there was an internal company document
    50        critical of the company or this is an external report 
    51        critical of the company? 
    52 
    53   Q.   No.  This is the company's own investigation?
    54        A.  I am not familiar with the contents here now but ----
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What do you want to put to Mr. Preston about
    57        it?  What is the bottom line of the series of questions?
    58
    59   MR. MORRIS: Is there a reason why this important document was
    60        not made public by the Company.

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