Day 122 - 05 May 95 - Page 59


     
     1   Q.   -- what enquiries did you make about the clock cards that
     2        were in the loft at Colchester?
     3        A.  I do not know that I was asked to make enquiries about
     4        clock cards in Colchester.
     5
     6   Q.   Were you or were you not?
     7        A.  I was asked to do literally hundreds of enquiries.
     8        I cannot remember them all, not by a long shot.  I cannot
     9        remember being asked to do -- I may have done.  I would not
    10        have done it myself.  I would have got the appropriate
    11        Personnel Officer or Security Officer to do it, but
    12        I cannot remember being asked to check on clock cards in
    13        Colchester.
    14
    15   Q.   Did you contact all the stores that had been mentioned in
    16        the pleadings and tell them that they must preserve all the
    17        documents?
    18        A.  I did not.  I did what I was asked to do and they are
    19        all answered in my affidavits.
    20
    21   Q.   You were aware of the obligation on a party to preserve
    22        documents that might be relevant to the pleadings in the
    23        case?
    24        A.  I am aware that once -- I did not know before this case
    25        started, so this was the first really big civil action
    26        I have been involved in, but I certainly became aware of
    27        the necessity to preserve documents.  When you asked for
    28        documents I caused to have searches made and those that
    29        I found have been disclosed, those that I could not find
    30        I have admitted in my affidavits.
    31
    32   Q.   But you did not send an instruction to all stores ---
    33        A.  No.
    34
    35   Q.   -- Mentioned in the pleadings saying to them:  "Make sure
    36        you do not destroy all your documents"?
    37        A.  Certainly not, no.
    38
    39   Q.   Sorry, "Do not destroy any documents that might be
    40        relevant"?
    41        A.  No.
    42
    43   Q.   Would you have been the person in the Company who would
    44        have been responsible for passing on that kind of
    45        information, or was there somebody else who was taking a
    46        more active role than you?
    47        A.  There was nobody taking a more active role than me in
    48        this case.  Everyone else who worked on this case worked
    49        under my control.
    50 
    51   Q.   I cannot remember where it is, but in an affidavit 
    52        somewhere I believe it said the clock cards at Colchester 
    53        had been destroyed in the normal course of business.
    54
    55   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, my Lord, it does say that.  It says that on
    56        page 8 of Mrs. Brinley-Codd's 73rd affidavit -- 11th
    57        affidavit sworn on 11th May.  She says she has "been
    58        informed by Miss Gloria Saul, who is the Administrative
    59        Assistant at the Colchester restaurant who worked at the
    60        restaurant for nine years, that, to the best of her

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