Day 143 - 27 Jun 95 - Page 35


     
     1   MR. MORRIS:  I know Mr. Rampton is -- I am asking a hypothetical
     2        question.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, you cannot ask it because it is just
     5        another way of putting in the contents of the document
     6        which on its own is not admissible.  You call someone from
     7        a union who expresses that view, that may be one thing.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  You said Mr. Stein, in your evidence-in-chief
    10        I believe -----
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can I just add one thing more?  I am not
    13        interested in whether it concerns Mr. Stein, it is what
    14        concerns me at the end of the day.  You have put your case
    15        about whether Mr. Stein considers McDonald's is anti-union
    16        or not and we have had a lot of evidence on that.
    17
    18   MR. MORRIS:  Is it a fact that some trade unions in Britain
    19        believe that you have a very anti-trade union attitude,
    20        your Company?  Is that a fact or not?
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you know whether that is so or not?
    23        A.  No, I do not know.
    24
    25   MR. MORRIS:  Would it concern you if they did think that?
    26
    27   MR. RAMPTON:  Please, Mr. Morris, please.  Even it if were so,
    28        it would be wholly inadmissible and irrelevant to the
    29        issues in this case.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It certainly would not help me to a
    32        conclusion.
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  I would say that the best judges of whether an
    35        organisation is anti-union are the trade unions because
    36        they will be on the receiving end.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Quite frankly, I do not accept that.
    39        You might just as well say that the best judges of the
    40        merits of this case are you, Ms. Steel and McDonald's
    41        Corporation and the English Company.  In fact, they are
    42        not; I am within our constitution, and you must respect
    43        that.
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  In that case, if we ask -----
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When you come to your own witnesses, you can
    48        ask them, subject to any argument from Mr. Rampton, what
    49        their view of things is.  You have got union witnesses.  It
    50        is not as if you have to scrape around because you do not 
    51        have a witness of your own. 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  There were a few things here that I wanted to ask
    54        you about.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Deal with one and then we will break for the
    57        mid-day adjournment.  You can break now if you want to.
    58
    59   MR. MORRIS:  Helen says she is starving so maybe we ought to
    60        break now.

Prev Next Index