Day 168 - 03 Oct 95 - Page 29
1 that insofar as it is fair to do so.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: He has said -- I mean, basically in his statement
4 Mr. Logan has said that -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Direct me to it. That is what I am giving
7 you the opportunity to do.
8
9 MR. MORRIS: On page 4 of his statement he says: "I once
10 witnessed the Manager randomly clock time from people's
11 clock card reports just to reduce labour, although I think
12 this was a rare incident". It is only when I spoke to him
13 on the phone that he said he believed that was Sean
14 Richards.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That does not give any intimation who the
17 actual Manager is.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: That is why I put it to the witness, to give him a
20 chance to say "no".
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am sorry. I have to put my foot down
23 sooner or later about this.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: All right then. OK. I will move on then.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not doing it now to make an example of
28 you, but if the net result is that you appreciate that you
29 must give notice in some form or other of extra information
30 which you have obtained before the McDonald's relevant
31 witness is called, then that is no bad thing. In fact, it
32 will be a good thing so far as the future procedure is
33 concerned.
34
35 MS. STEEL: Can I say something?
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is no answer, as Ms. Steel suggested a
38 moment ago when we were talking about credit, to say:
39 "Well, it may have been done by McDonald's", because if
40 the objections are taken, I have to take them as they come.
41
42
43 It is becoming more and more apparent to me -- I am not
44 suggesting that it is by any design on your part -- there
45 is a very great risk that as we go through the witnesses
46 dealing with specific alleged malpractices at specific
47 locations, you are going to get information at the last
48 minute and not give any notice of it to those who represent
49 McDonald's. As I said long ago in the case, we are long
50 past the days when that was acceptable in civil litigation
51 in this country.
52
53 MS. STEEL: If I could just say a few things? Firstly, that
54 obviously not having any legal experience, we do tend to go
55 on what the Plaintiffs do. We assume that we will be
56 allowed to do the same. So we are learning as we are going
57 along.
58
59 Secondly, that obviously we do not have the time to take as
60 detailed statements as we would otherwise like to have
