Day 153 - 12 Jul 95 - Page 52
1 been accepted. OK, Mr. Rampton wants to bring up the odd
2 point that he feels should be put, although I do not see
3 why our cross-examination should be guided by what
4 Mr. Rampton suggests that we should put to the witness. So
5 if there is some, all right, extreme case of -- obviously,
6 all our witnesses say that the management attitude was one
7 of exploitation, and circumvention of rules or policy or
8 whatever. So it would certainly take a great deal longer
9 if we had to put a great deal of specific points or even
10 general points to every witness.
11
12 So I just wanted to say that Mr. Rampton can be reassured
13 that we do not abandon any single point in any of our
14 witness statements by not putting it specifically to any of
15 the McDonald's witnesses. If he has any doubt over that,
16 he is welcome to raise it, so that we can clarify that we
17 are not abandoning the point that he may be concerned
18 about. I wanted to make that clear, so that we know where
19 we all stand.
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: Can I say something? Broadly speaking, I am in
22 agreement with Mr. Morris. I have taken the attitude --
23 I would not take the same attitude if I were counsel on the
24 other side, by any means -- by and large, I am in agreement
25 with Mr. Morris. It is a different question, really. We
26 have a gentleman in the witness box who was a manager at
27 the time whose credibility may, your Lordship may think, be
28 to some extent challenged by the Defendants and their
29 witnesses.
30
31 I noticed from reading Mr. Stanton's transcripts that the
32 allegation that he conspired with Mr. Davis to defraud the
33 customers by watering down the ketchup, and so on and so
34 forth, was not put to Mr. Stanton, which is why I insisted
35 it should be put to Mr. Davis, because it is a matter
36 directly affecting his integrity and his credibility.
37
38 The same goes for any other kind of allegation of that
39 sort, such as the one which I have read to you a moment
40 ago, which is an allegation that staff protested about the
41 fact that the weather was cold and, when they did so, they
42 were victimised by the management.
43
44 All matters of that kind should be put to the witness, if
45 the witness's credibility on that matter is going be a
46 matter which your Lordship is going to have to decide in
47 due course. It is not just to help your Lordship; it is to
48 help the witness as well.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. It seems there are two aspects to it.
51 The first is whether, if you do not put something, it can
52 rightly be assumed that you are abandoning the point. I am
53 not going to draw that conclusion.
54
55 The second question is what should and should not be put,
56 according to our rules of procedure, in cross-examination
57 of a witness.
58
59 You are quite right that the case has been conducted so far
60 on the basis that a point will not be taken against you
