Day 198 - 08 Dec 95 - Page 33


     
     1        I propose to allow Mr. Rampton to call Mr. Harney on that
     2        point and to allow the Defendants to recall Mr. Gibney in
     3        relation to the pressure, or lack of it, which he witnessed
     4        at any other store in this area.
     5
     6        The only other thing I will add is that once further
     7        witnesses come into the witness box, whether they are new
     8        witnesses or witnesses who are recalled, it may not be easy
     9        to restrict them to the topics which Mr. Rampton has
    10        enumerated in his submission a moment or two ago.  I fear
    11        that I will have to be generous about any spread of the
    12        evidence, but I hope that Mr. Rampton, Mr. Atkinson,
    13        Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris will try and confine
    14        examination-in-chief and cross-examination essentially to
    15        the questions of clocking crew's hours and pressure to pair
    16        costs.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL:  Yes.  There is another thing that I wanted to raise
    19        which is about the matter of documents.  We have been
    20        served a whole load of documents over the past couple of
    21        weeks about the Colchester store and the other day we got
    22        the store Profit and Loss report, and I am extremely
    23        concerned about this because before this trial even
    24        started, when we had our witness statements about the
    25        Colchester store, we asked for discovery of all documents
    26        in the Plaintiffs' possession relating to the issues which
    27        were as set out in our witnesses' statements, and our
    28        witnesses talked about the labour per cent for one thing
    29        and also about payroll matters.  We were assured by the
    30        Plaintiffs that they did not have any more documents, any
    31        documents at all -- in fact, I think the only thing we got
    32        from Colchester eventually was the Accident Book --  we
    33        were assured that they did not have any documents
    34        whatsoever to do with this, and now, all of a sudden, they
    35        are pulling out masses of documents from out of a hat - PR
    36        reviews and particularly this store Profit and Loss report,
    37        which are clearly relevant to the evidence that was set out
    38        in the statements of our earlier witnesses.
    39
    40        I know I am going to be told this is a matter to bring up
    41        at the end, but I would like -- I do not know whether there
    42        is some kind of action that can be taken to require the
    43        Plaintiffs to make absolutely sure that they have disclosed
    44        everything in their possession which is relevant to the
    45        issues which are in dispute about the Colchester store,
    46        because clearly they had not done so until two weeks ago,
    47        and it is my belief that it is very likely there is still
    48        more there, there is still more there now.  Mr. Brett did
    49        say in his statement that the clock card records going back
    50        several years were stored in the loft at the Colchester 
    51        store, and, well, I am just extremely concerned by the 
    52        Plaintiffs' tactics on this matter. 
    53
    54   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I do not (inaudible).  I would deprecate
    55        the kind of implied accusation that Ms. Steel makes; it
    56        does not improve the shining hour and it is misplaced.  The
    57        original discovery made in relation to Colchester -- I have
    58        to say this; I should not have to -- was, of course,
    59        confined to the period which was relevant which was,
    60        I think, until the 1st August, or thereabouts, 1987.

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