Day 190 - 23 Nov 95 - Page 33
1 request to the appropriate person at McDonald's to give the
2 answers that she got; rather, my Lord, as your Lordship
3 will remember -- and although the point was a lot foggier
4 in my mind at the time, as I had not done the research that
5 I did last night -- rather in the same way as I accepted
6 that it was probably right that what Corinne Reed had told
7 Anne Tobin -- who was perfectly, as it were, open as being
8 the television researcher that she was, and Corinne Reed
9 was appointed to accompany the television crew and the team
10 in their inquiries and in their filming -- your Lordship
11 will be likely to say: Well, she must have had, for that
12 purpose at least, in making that film, authority to speak
13 on behalf of the Company.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It occurs to me that the telephone
16 conversation with Joanna Blackett is what Ms. Lamb was
17 referring to on page 10 of the Lovell Durrant notes, where
18 she said that she and her colleague had approached
19 McDonald's, accusing them of not paying the Wages Council
20 rates; they had spoken to the personnel officer at
21 Head Office.
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. That is one of the paragraphs I have a tick
24 against, which means that I do not object to it.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: While we are on the Lovell Durrant matter, so
27 far as that is concerned, that can be taken just as notice
28 of the matters which Ms. Lamb might give evidence of; and
29 the normal rules would apply. Either she is saying what
30 she has witnessed herself; or she is saying (as she appears
31 to be on paragraph 10) what the personnel officer had said,
32 which is allowable; or she is saying what someone else has
33 told her, which would not be admissible.
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: That is right, my Lord. What the personnel
36 officer says about this topic -- Wage Council rates and so
37 on, overtime and so on -- does, it strikes me (as I have no
38 doubt it strikes your Lordship) fall into the exceptional
39 category that although it is hearsay, in one sense it is
40 hearsay because it is a report of what she had been told,
41 in the true sense, as one of the authorities says, this is
42 the Company's position. It may be it is rebuttal, in the
43 sense that what Ms. Blackett said is wrong; then that is up
44 to me to prove that, if I should need to do so. Not so
45 however -- and this applies as much to this attendance note
46 as it does to the Lynval and Mark Ryan statement -- not so
47 with a great deal of the rest of this attendance note,
48 I fear, which is in some parts direct evidence but, for the
49 most part, leaving aside the Alimi and Percy bits, it
50 appears to be hearsay. I do not know whether your Lordship
51 would wish me to, since we are still -----
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think, when the time comes, I should deal
54 with all the statements; and I think it would be helpful,
55 since Mr. Riley has gone to get the book anyway, if you
56 could say in relation to the Lovell White Durrant
57 attendance notes, which are the matters which Mr. Morris
58 would like to adduce -- because he has excluded an awful
59 lot; all the Siamak/Alimi matters, which Mr. Alimi may give
60 evidence of in any event he has excluded -- which ones you
