Day 190 - 23 Nov 95 - Page 33


     
     1        request to the appropriate person at McDonald's to give the
     2        answers that she got; rather, my Lord, as your Lordship
     3        will remember -- and although the point was a lot foggier
     4        in my mind at the time, as I had not done the research that
     5        I did last night -- rather in the same way as I accepted
     6        that it was probably right that what Corinne Reed had told
     7        Anne Tobin -- who was perfectly, as it were, open as being
     8        the television researcher that she was, and Corinne Reed
     9        was appointed to accompany the television crew and the team
    10        in their inquiries and in their filming -- your Lordship
    11        will be likely to say: Well, she must have had, for that
    12        purpose at least, in making that film, authority to speak
    13        on behalf of the Company.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It occurs to me that the telephone
    16        conversation with Joanna Blackett is what Ms. Lamb was
    17        referring to on page 10 of the Lovell Durrant notes, where
    18        she said that she and her colleague had approached
    19        McDonald's, accusing them of not paying the Wages Council
    20        rates; they had spoken to the personnel officer at
    21        Head Office.
    22
    23   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  That is one of the paragraphs I have a tick
    24        against, which means that I do not object to it.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  While we are on the Lovell Durrant matter, so
    27        far as that is concerned, that can be taken just as notice
    28        of the matters which Ms. Lamb might give evidence of; and
    29        the normal rules would apply.  Either she is saying what
    30        she has witnessed herself; or she is saying (as she appears
    31        to be on paragraph 10) what the personnel officer had said,
    32        which is allowable; or she is saying what someone else has
    33        told her, which would not be admissible.
    34
    35   MR. RAMPTON:  That is right, my Lord.  What the personnel
    36        officer says about this topic -- Wage Council rates and so
    37        on, overtime and so on -- does, it strikes me (as I have no
    38        doubt it strikes your Lordship) fall into the exceptional
    39        category that although it is hearsay, in one sense it is
    40        hearsay because it is a report of what she had been told,
    41        in the true sense, as one of the authorities says, this is
    42        the Company's position.  It may be it is rebuttal, in the
    43        sense that what Ms. Blackett said is wrong; then that is up
    44        to me to prove that, if I should need to do so.  Not so
    45        however -- and this applies as much to this attendance note
    46        as it does to the Lynval and Mark Ryan statement -- not so
    47        with a great deal of the rest of this attendance note,
    48        I fear, which is in some parts direct evidence but, for the
    49        most part, leaving aside the Alimi and Percy bits, it
    50        appears to be hearsay.  I do not know whether your Lordship 
    51        would wish me to, since we are still ----- 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think, when the time comes, I should deal
    54        with all the statements; and I think it would be helpful,
    55        since Mr. Riley has gone to get the book anyway, if you
    56        could say in relation to the Lovell White Durrant
    57        attendance notes, which are the matters which Mr. Morris
    58        would like to adduce -- because he has excluded an awful
    59        lot; all the Siamak/Alimi matters, which Mr. Alimi may give
    60        evidence of in any event he has excluded -- which ones you

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