Day 122 - 05 May 95 - Page 59
1 Q. -- what enquiries did you make about the clock cards that
2 were in the loft at Colchester?
3 A. I do not know that I was asked to make enquiries about
4 clock cards in Colchester.
5
6 Q. Were you or were you not?
7 A. I was asked to do literally hundreds of enquiries.
8 I cannot remember them all, not by a long shot. I cannot
9 remember being asked to do -- I may have done. I would not
10 have done it myself. I would have got the appropriate
11 Personnel Officer or Security Officer to do it, but
12 I cannot remember being asked to check on clock cards in
13 Colchester.
14
15 Q. Did you contact all the stores that had been mentioned in
16 the pleadings and tell them that they must preserve all the
17 documents?
18 A. I did not. I did what I was asked to do and they are
19 all answered in my affidavits.
20
21 Q. You were aware of the obligation on a party to preserve
22 documents that might be relevant to the pleadings in the
23 case?
24 A. I am aware that once -- I did not know before this case
25 started, so this was the first really big civil action
26 I have been involved in, but I certainly became aware of
27 the necessity to preserve documents. When you asked for
28 documents I caused to have searches made and those that
29 I found have been disclosed, those that I could not find
30 I have admitted in my affidavits.
31
32 Q. But you did not send an instruction to all stores ---
33 A. No.
34
35 Q. -- Mentioned in the pleadings saying to them: "Make sure
36 you do not destroy all your documents"?
37 A. Certainly not, no.
38
39 Q. Sorry, "Do not destroy any documents that might be
40 relevant"?
41 A. No.
42
43 Q. Would you have been the person in the Company who would
44 have been responsible for passing on that kind of
45 information, or was there somebody else who was taking a
46 more active role than you?
47 A. There was nobody taking a more active role than me in
48 this case. Everyone else who worked on this case worked
49 under my control.
50
51 Q. I cannot remember where it is, but in an affidavit
52 somewhere I believe it said the clock cards at Colchester
53 had been destroyed in the normal course of business.
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, my Lord, it does say that. It says that on
56 page 8 of Mrs. Brinley-Codd's 73rd affidavit -- 11th
57 affidavit sworn on 11th May. She says she has "been
58 informed by Miss Gloria Saul, who is the Administrative
59 Assistant at the Colchester restaurant who worked at the
60 restaurant for nine years, that, to the best of her
