Day 161 - 24 Jul 95 - Page 19
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That may be so.
2
3 MISS STEEL: Yes. I was going to carry on to say, there have
4 been a number of addresses of stores given in the case so
5 far, and I have not heard any allegations that anything has
6 happened to any of them. It is certainly not our intention
7 to spread them around with the hope that anything happens
8 to them.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But the first question is why you need to
11 know it; and, secondly, if you do need to know it, why it
12 need be actually spoken to in open court.
13
14 MISS STEEL: She was put forward as a witness by the Plaintiffs,
15 and I believe on that basis alone we would be entitled to
16 ask questions ---
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, that is not so. You must have a
19 specific -----
20
21 MISS STEEL: -- about her experience. Well, she has talked
22 about how she enjoys working for McDonald's and she likes
23 being a franchisee, and things like that. I believe that
24 we should be entitled to test that. It may also be that
25 she is running a store which has come up previously in this
26 case, and she may be able to give relevant evidence on that
27 matter; or that there are bad practices going on at that
28 store which the Plaintiffs want to keep under wraps.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think you need put it as strongly as
31 that. What you might say is that you might want to make
32 some enquiries about the store and the way it is run.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I would, with respect, object to that,
35 because if it is not a store which has any relevance to
36 this case during the currency of Miss Anteneh's
37 franchisee -- since 1993, in other words -- there is
38 nothing to justify general enquiries about that store which
39 could not be characterised as fishing, because it would
40 have to be a pleaded allegation; and there is not one.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the objection to the name of the
43 identity of a store being written down?
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: I do not have an objection to that. I just do not
46 want it -- it is the witness's anxiety.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me just ask a bit about that.
49
50 (To the witness) Miss Anteneh, what you spoke to happened
51 some 16 or 17 months ago now. Has there been any trouble
52 since?
53 A. No, there has not.
54
55 Q. That was just a single incident, was it? I say "just". It
56 was a single incident?
57 A. That is correct.
58
59 Q. Do you have any real reluctance about identifying the store
60 now, taking a reasonably robust approach to the problem?
