Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 21
1 dates, I can see in the letters as well as the days I have
2 in other material that I have seen, the days of the week,
3 I believe that July 4th itself was on a Friday. Our July
4 4th holiday is generally a three-day weekend, even if it
5 is not on a Friday. In this instance the three-day
6 holiday began on Friday. Everyone was back to work on
7 Monday, the 7th. Some time on Monday the 7th we were
8 contacted by McDonald's to advise us not that they were
9 putting out a press release, or anything of the sort, but
10 to advise us that they had indeed decided to agree to
11 release the brochures nationwide.
12
13 Our dealings with them were, of course, at that time -- we
14 were expecting a response to our offer as contained in the
15 July 3rd letter. We accepted their statement as an
16 informal non-written acceptance of our offer. At that
17 point we felt we had an agreement. We were somewhat
18 surprised to find out the next day, or later that day,
19 more likely, that what in fact they had done was to issue
20 unilaterally a press release claiming all the credit and
21 not sharing the credit with the other fastfood companies.
22
23 Q. The phone call to you on the 7th when they told you they
24 were about to put out the brochures, did that come a bit
25 out of the blue, do you know?
26 A. We were expecting a call from them. What came
27 out -- so the telling us they were going to go ahead and
28 agree to what we had asked was no surprise at all. It was
29 a pleasant surprise because we did have some doubts as to
30 whether they would agree -- they being the last ones to do
31 so -- but what came as a significant surprise to us was,
32 as I said, their decision to represent through their press
33 release and statements to the people of Texas and the rest
34 of the country that they were doing this all on their own.
35
36 Q. So the first you were aware of any press release was when
37 you read it in the papers the next day?
38 A. I might have been contacted, I don't believe so, I
39 might have been contacted by a member of the press.
40 I don't believe so because the news report, the Associated
41 Press Live Story in particular, that appeared on Tuesday
42 was unilateral. It only reflected and only gave credit to
43 McDonald's. It was fairly clear to me that this had been
44 in response to a press statement of some sort given out by
45 McDonald's. So, I think it was on the next day, it might
46 have been later on Monday the 7th.
47
48 Q. If we could turn to exhibit 3?
49 A. To my statement?
50
51 Q. Yes, to your statement. It says: "On behalf of
52 McDonald's Corporation I am responding to" -----
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just so we have it, 21st July 1986.
55
56 MS. STEEL: Yes, sorry. From McDonald's solicitors to Jim
57 Mattox, the Attorney General of Texas?
58 A. Yes.
59
60 Q. "On behalf of McDonald's Corporation I am responding to
