Day 152 - 11 Jul 95 - Page 63


     
     1        A.  It was excellent.
     2
     3   Q.   The Defendants' witnesses make a number of allegations
     4        about that.  I am certainly not going to trouble you with
     5        most of them.  One which may be important I would like you
     6        to deal with is that raw meat, I suppose it means
     7        hamburgers (it might mean chicken), was often served to the
     8        customers.  Would you like to comment on that?
     9        A.  To my knowledge, raw meat was never knowingly served to
    10        customers.
    11
    12   Q.   Do you think ----
    13        A.  I cannot see what possible gain there would be to that.
    14
    15   Q.   Nor can I, but do you think that might have been brought to
    16        your attention if it happened with any regularity?
    17        A.  The customers would certainly bring it to my attention.
    18
    19   Q.   Was there ever a time that you know of when a product that
    20        had been defrosted and lying around, presumably, in a pool
    21        of water, maybe a hamburger or a McNugget, was then used to
    22        be cooked?
    23        A.  Never, and I would also say that I cannot honestly
    24        foresee how that could possibly happen, you know, on any --
    25        well, apart from a very rare instance; for instance, out of
    26        the 35 restaurants that I have got at the moment there is
    27        only -- I can only remember one or possibly two freezer
    28        breakdowns in the last year, and a product will remain
    29        intact and not defrosted for 12 hours, providing you keep
    30        the door shut to that freezer.  So the instances where a
    31        product would be thawed out, I find it impossible to think
    32        of a possible instance where that could happen.
    33
    34   Q.   Finally this, Mr. Davis:  Some allegations of dishonesty
    35        which have been made against you I would like you to deal
    36        with.  First, that you and Mr. Stanton conspired to water
    37        down syrups, mustard, ketchup, etc. etc. etc.
    38        A.  Definitely not.
    39
    40   Q.   Can you think of any advantage that you might have obtained
    41        from doing that on a scale which was at, as it were, to
    42        confer a commercial benefit?
    43        A.  It would not confer any commercial benefit because
    44        whatever product you consider, watering down of anything,
    45        say, mix or syrups, would cause the customers to bring them
    46        back almost immediately, I would say.  The shakes that we
    47        sell are fairly notorious for being of a thick nature.
    48        Consequently, if you start selling watered down shakes
    49        I would assume that customers would bring them back fairly
    50        frequently.  With soft drinks a similar thing would 
    51        emerge.  I can see no benefit whatsoever to that practice. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Can you think of any reason why these four or five people
    54        should think it right to make accusations, false
    55        accusations, as you now tell us, of this kind against you?
    56        A.  No.
    57
    58   Q.   Mr. Brett, Mr. Gidney, the two Harrisons and Mr. Alemi -
    59        can you think of anything that might prompt them to make
    60        that kind of accusation against you?

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