Day 171 - 11 Oct 95 - Page 36
1 been identified, whether by Mr. Logan in his original
2 statement or in his handwritten note, then by all means.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is how I read it; and one could, if
5 necessary, make a list scheduling performance reviews.
6
7 MR. RAMPTON: I said that I would faithfully follow Mr. Logan's
8 two statements -- by his second statement, I mean the
9 questionnaire which he answered for the Department of
10 Employment -- and the handwritten note as my guide to
11 relevance; and we will do that. We are not willing to go
12 beyond that, because that would be giving away a fishing
13 application, which I am not willing to do.
14
15 My Lord, 4 and 5; here, I do have an objection of
16 principle. As I said to your Lordship earlier, we have not
17 found any store audit for either of those years which gives
18 an F for performance reviews which is the specific
19 allegation which is the one I am bound to respond to by way
20 of discovery, if it should be a good one. That does not
21 exist. It is not, in our submission, sufficient for the
22 Defendants to say "critical of practices generally". That
23 might include virtually anything. It might include, for
24 example, an irregularity of environment/index.html">litter patrol, for all I know.
25 Before any discovery can be given or should be given in
26 relation to any criticism from Head Office, the precise
27 criticism, the precise practice criticised must be
28 particularised, because otherwise the door is open to the
29 most enormous trawl through a case which Mr. Logan in his
30 own written statements (in the plural) does not make or
31 does not seek to make. That is not permissible, and the
32 Court of Appeal did not suggest that it was.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I had not necessarily put it in precise terms
35 in my mind, but a factor of this case is that, on behalf of
36 your clients, they have made the decision not just to beat
37 off specific allegations which have been made by the
38 Defendants in justification, but to -- I am not meaning to
39 be facetious -- that, essentially, all is well in the house
40 of McDonald's; and part of that has been to say: "We do
41 regular store audits and we would discover if anything was
42 amiss at a particular store." I invite you to tell me if I
43 am wrong, but a feature in my consideration of this
44 application is that Bath might be a better place than
45 almost anywhere else to test these things in so far as you
46 can by discovery. The answer could go either way. I do
47 not know whether, if one saw the store record audits, they
48 would help your clients' case or help the Defendants. It
49 might show that there were regular store audits, that, as
50 one would expect in any ordinary world, some things are not
51 up to snuff but, by and large, the performance is pretty
52 good, in which case you would say that is relevant; or it
53 might show that fundamental failures were discovered, in
54 which case Mr. Morris would say that is helpful and
55 relevant. Am I wrong in approaching it in that way?
56
57 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, put like that, no. I have to say, no,
58 your Lordship is not wrong. One of the features of the
59 case -- at least, I believe to be, trying as I ever do to
60 see the wood fro the trees -- I believe is that what you do
