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.
